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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27401089">Three Years in Three Weeks</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockMalfoy/pseuds/SherlockMalfoy'>SherlockMalfoy</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Iron Squib and Other Magical Tales [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Marvel Cinematic Universe</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe Travel, Implied and Referenced Torture, M/M, Two timelines, alternate versions of main characters, easy killed voldemort</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:06:54</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Graphic Depictions Of Violence</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>43,674</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27401089</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockMalfoy/pseuds/SherlockMalfoy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When Harry gets called via patronus to the old British Ministry of Magic to aid the Unspeakables when they accidentally unleash enemies from the past, Steve tags along with. And the two end up a world away from where they started with no clear path back home.</p><p>Meanwhile after the destruction of the Veil of Death its victims start reappearing. One such victim, Sirius Black, returns from the great beyond... Much to Tony Stark's annoyance.</p><p>Edit 11/28/2020 - Warnings changed for ONE scene in chapter 3. Rating was changed just to be on the safe side.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Harry Potter/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers (alternate universe), Luna Lovegood &amp; Harry Potter, Steve Rogers &amp; Teenage Harry Potter</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Iron Squib and Other Magical Tales [10]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1084449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>75</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Year One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>This story will have chapters alternating between the two timelines that are running parallel to one another.<br/>Harry and Steve's story, which takes place over 3-ish years.<br/>Then Tony's story which takes place over 3-ish weeks.</p><p> </p><p>  <i>Edit 11/28/2020 - Warnings changed/added for ONE scene in Chapter 3 where Teenage Harry kills Gellert Grindlewald. Just, thought you should know.</i></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>
  <em>A thought that had never, not once, crossed the mind of Captain Steven Grant Rogers was this.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>What would happen if a tired, cranky, unkillable abomination fell through an archway famous for killing anything and everything that passed through it?</em>
</p><p>
  <em>No. He certainly never had that thought cross his mind.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>But he got the answer anyway. Not that he even knew what the archway even was when he did see it, or why he and the others received the ominous warning from Harry to keep away from it.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Let's rewind to... say... a morning before Steve Rogers learned the answer to this question he never, ever asked...</em>
</p><p> </p><p>It had been a pleasant day, of a sort.</p><p>It was Harry's turn to set up the training course and he was known for making them quite brutal at times. Today was no different.</p><p>Steve at least had a bit of a warning of what lay ahead. "I've modelled it after an obstacle course I ran when I was fourteen," Harry had said. Steve remembered the story of that obstacle course... and what lay at the end of it for the ex-pat wizard. And that was the only warning he received.</p><p>The others... well... "Please tell me it's not Harry's turn again..." Sam had complained. Then swore when he saw the training area had been expanded with the wizard's enchantments and plants twitched and snarled around them. Harry stood on a platform above, hands on his hips and grinning like a madman. "In this maze are some of the deadliest creatures I was allowed to import into the country. And a few I sort of smuggled in. Yes, you may kill them. In fact, I encourage it. I can always use the carcasses for potions ingredients and equipment upgrades."</p><p>"Are you trying to kill us?!"</p><p>"Not all of us can just drink poison and wake up with a headache you know!" Sam shouted up to him.</p><p>Harry laughed and started a countdown. Once it hit 0, the sound of a canon firing echoed in the space. And they were off. Running an obstacle course of strange, grotesque, and downright bizarre creatures and flora.</p><p>More than once Sam asked what the hell the point of this was. Natasha told him about the cyborg spiders. And the woman that could control plants who had attempted to expand the Florida Everglades across the entire southern end of the peninsula.</p><p>"And what the hell happens if we get poisoned?! Huh!"</p><p>"Why don't you let yourself get bit and find out?" Natasha had replied, ducking under an acid spitting vine.</p><p>Four hours later, all but Vision and Harry were collapsed in a heap in the locker room. Wanda found out what happens when you get bit. Harry yanks you out of the maze, gives you the antidote, waits for it to work, and drops you back in at a random spot.</p><p>And he did so rather gleefully.</p><p>Lunch, when they'd had it, caused the table to bow in the middle there was so much of it. Rhodes had questioned why so much.... until he saw Steve eat through about a third of it before he started to slow down. Harry ate through quite a bit as well. "Cap's metabolism stays in overdrive. Ate me out of house and home the month he stayed on my couch," Sam had explained to Wanda as she sat staring at the two men barely stopping to actually chew their food properly.</p><p>"And what is his problem?" she said, pointing with a fork to Harry</p><p>"Hell if I know."</p><p>Harry reached for another bottle of water. "It takes a lot of magic to keep you lot and all those critters contained you know. And re-arranging the maze as needed. AND cleaning up the mess after thank you very much."</p><p>"Well if you didn't spend your turn setting up training days trying to kill us all you wouldn't burn through so much of your magic now would you?" Sam replied, shaking his bit of beef on the end of his fork at the wizard.</p><p>The rest of the day was spent catching up on paperwork, keeping an ear out for trouble, and generally up to their own devices.</p><p>For Rhodey that was tending to his duties with the Air Force for the afternoon. Sam made the trip down to DC for his VA meeting the next day. Wanda and Natasha were doing... Well, Harry wasn't sure and was too afraid to ask to be perfectly honest.</p><p>Vision spent his afternoon trying another new hobby.</p><p>Steve and Harry... well... Harry was bent over a table in the private potions lab Tony had built into his suite. He wasn't working on a potion, but instead examining some things former colleagues had sent him because no one could figure out what the hell they were given what little writing they found was written in some strange, squiggly script.</p><p>Steve had put himself in the corner on the only comfortable seat in the lab, a sketchbook open on an arm of the small but cosy two-seater. Harry would hum quietly, and occasionally start hissing as he ran his fingers along the squiggles, then reach over for a pen to write down the translations. The only other sounds were Steve's pencils scratching against the paper of his book as he doodled. Or as he took in Harry's profile, putting that down to the page and shading it in before turning to a new one to start some other sketch that caught his fancy.</p><p>It was nice.</p><p>Relaxing, really.</p><p>Eventually, Harry stopped, rubbed his eyes tiredly, and groaned. "Shit. One of my contacts fell out."</p><p>"Where do you keep the spares?"</p><p>"Don't have any. I'll have to wear my glasses until I get back to the optometrist."</p><p>"Why don't you just...." Steve waved his pencil around like a wand as Harry turned on his stool. "Magic your eyes fixed?"</p><p>"I could, actually. A revolutionary corrective procedure was discovered about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, it doesn't work on me."</p><p>"Why not?"</p><p>Harry sighed and rubbed at his temple. It was the side with the eye lacking a contact lens. "The same reason I don't age and can't get rid of these damned scars, Steven. I died with shit eyesight, and it'll remain shit eyesight for as long as I exist. However long that may be."</p><p>Steve set aside his sketchbook, dropping the pencil down onto the open pages and stood. "Come here," he said, stepping closer to Harry's table and opening his arms.</p><p>"A hug will not make me feel better."</p><p>"But it's a start," Steve said, waiting for Harry to stop being stubborn and just give in already.</p><p>He did, and Steve hugged him, and Harry grumbled in determination to stay annoyed at him. If only mildly.</p><p>"You know what we haven't done in a while?"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Gone out for dinner. Gone to a show. Hell, I'd settle for you dragging me around on one of your shopping trips at this point."</p><p>"You hate my shopping trips."</p><p>"Should tell you how desperate I am to get you out of the compound and do something normal for a change."</p><p>Harry slowly nodded against his chest. "Alright. Fine. There's this Mongolian barbecue place I've been hearing good things about in Montreal."</p><p>"Within the country, Harry. Preferably in the state just in case of an emergency."</p><p>"Fine. What sounds good to you? And if you say a diner burger you're sleeping alone tonight."</p><p>"I saw a couple videos on the internet with these grill chefs doing tricks with the food. Cracking an egg on their knives. Making little volcanos out of rings of onion."</p><p>"Oh Merlin... you were watching Benny Hanna training videos weren't you?"</p><p>"It looked interesting."</p><p>Harry's shoulders shook as he tried to contain his laughter. Finally, he wriggled out of Steve's hold. "Fine. We'll find a hibachi place. You can sit and watch the trick chefs up close. Merlin help us when they get a load of your appetite."</p><p>"It's not that bad-"</p><p>"You're lucky I'm filthy rich and I love to cook. The food budget for you alone is quite frankly out of this world."</p><p>"It's not that bad!"</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>After a nice evening out, dinner and a casual stroll through Patriot's Crossing, a wizarding hub located through the Cleopatra's Needle sculpture in Central Park, the superpowered couple returned to the compound after dark. They hadn't bothered with using the doors, as Harry had been rather... suggestive with his ice cream cone as they'd stopped to watch some of the magical street performers down around the main public square of the Crossing. It took quite a lot of willpower to keep his hands to himself until they were safely through the slingring portal and in Harry's suite again.</p><p>Clothes? Clothes went everywhere between the sitting room and the bedroom as they raced to get undressed and into bed. Harry, apparently, was just a little too slow to get there as he'd gotten tangled in his shirt and nearly lost his glasses in the process. Because when Steve caught up to him, he'd swept him up in his arms and carried him the rest of the way, dumping the man unceremoniously on the bed before he climbed on after him.</p><p>It was two hours later that found them tired, a bit sticky, and very much satisfied. Harry spooned against Steve's broad chest – one of his favourite places to be in the afterglow of a nice, slower and gentler than normal round in the bed.</p><p>"I've been thinking," Harry said. "Tomorrow, I'll call Tony and tell him."</p><p>"Tell him what?"</p><p>"About us. I've put it off long enough and-"</p><p>"And you didn't want to make him angry?"</p><p>"Exactly."</p><p>"But he's still going to be angry."</p><p>"Yeah," Harry said softly. "But... see, this thing with Tony. It's really complicated."</p><p>Steve moved behind him, nudging him a bit to free the arm trapped under the wizard so he could prop himself up and look at him properly. "Harry," Steve said, reaching out with one hand to turn Harry's face towards him so they could see eye to eye. "You're closer to him than you are the rest of your family. I get it. Honestly, I think he'll be more upset that it's taken you so long to say something than the fact it's me."</p><p>"I wouldn't be too sure about that, Steven. He's-"</p><p>But Harry wouldn't get to finish that sentence.</p><p>A patronus flitted through the room, landing at the foot of the bed. It was a swan, and the voice with which it spoke was panicked and fearful.</p><p>"Grim, we need you! Death Eaters! Old British Ministry! Hurry!"</p><p>Steve nearly got thrown from the bed in Harry's haste to respond to the distress message. Harry carelessly waved a hand towards him before waving one over himself. Steve winced at the sudden sensation of having been scrubbed harshly with a rough cloth from head to toe. By the time Steve had called for Kreacher, not knowing if the bitter little beastie would even answer him, Harry was already half-dressed in his uniform.</p><p>"Filthy not-muggle calls for Kreacher."</p><p>"I need my uniform from my locker."</p><p>"Like hell you do!" Harry snapped, hopping on one foot as he tried to pull a boot on. "You're not going!"</p><p>"You're going to need backup."</p><p>"These are wizards, Steven! Not your standard HYDRA henchmen!"</p><p>"Have you not been training us to take down magical threats?!"</p><p>Harry didn't answer because he knew Steve was right. It's why his particular training days were heavy on the magic against their mostly non-magical defense. The team NEEDED to know how to tackle threats from his kind now that the two worlds were starting to heal the rift between them. And Harry wouldn't always be around to bail them out of a conflict with beings like Loki... or himself.</p><p>"Use the stealth suit. The other ones are too bright and will just make you an easier target."</p><p>From the moment the message arrived to the moment Harry opened the slingring portal, ten minutes had passed. Steve attached the shield to his back and followed Harry through into the cavernous atrium of what had once been the worst run government building in all of the magical world.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The situation was dire.</p><p>Unspeakables had come from Scotland and Ireland. The Sovereign States had decided England's government would be gutted in its entirety and a new system put into place. Something closer to what MACUSA had going on. As part of this restructuring the old Ministry of Magic was being emptied out. Every desk, every bolthole, every memo inventoried and stored for investigation and examination. Every employee questioned and interviewed using multiple methods to ensure truth and accuracy.</p><p>This particular night, or rather day as England was about 5 hours ahead of New York, Unspeakables had come to dismantle the old Department of Mysteries.</p><p>And that was when it happened.</p><p>Some idiot opened a trunk in the Time Chamber without checking the manifest for what was inside.</p><p>And now.... now the entire department was flooded with time displaced Death Eaters. Death Eaters, Harry quickly found out, who were fresh from the First War with Voldemort. Some of whom had originally been followers of Grindlewald until his defeat at the hands of Albus Dumbledore.</p><p>How they were there and who they served before didn't matter now though, as Harry and Steve fought their way through floor after floor with a growing squad of fighters at their backs. Each level, each floor, those who were rescued by a flying metal frisbee or an overpowered expelliarmus joined the ranks. Some were sent back up to the atrium to hold the exits while others were sent through the lifts to the lowest levels, to the sub-sub basements with the goal of rooting out any that may still be hiding out in the dark.</p><p>Harry and Steve led the rest into the Department of Mysteries. They split up into teams of varied numbers in the room of the many doors. "Any door that's locked," Harry ordered, "Blast it down. We leave no stone unturned and no corner unchecked."</p><p>"Yes sir!"</p><p>"Steve, stick close to me. Where we're going, one wrong step and you're dead."</p><p>"So," Captain America replied. "No pressure. Just a normal day then."</p><p>Harry shook his head with a grin as the spinning doors came to a stop at last. The only one still closed to them. The one room Harry simultaneously never wanted to see again and never wanted to leave during his studies in the department. "Come on," he said, knowing he'd never need to blast this door open. He strode forward with Steve at his side, exuding a confidence he did not feel. The hairs on the back of his neck were standing on end and the black mass of mist and smoke only he could see seemed to wrap around him like a cloak. Every inch of him Death touched had skin pimpling in goose-flesh beneath his uniform.</p><p>Harry reached for the door, barely touching it before it swung open before them. "One more thing," he said. "You get hurt, get back up. You get killed-"</p><p>"Walk it off," Steve finished, recalling his own words to Harry not that long ago during their fight in Sokovia.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>He was dead. He knows he was dead. Because his head is killing him and so is his back.</p><p>"Steven, how long was I out?" he asked blearily, cursing the fact he'd had to wear his glasses into a fight rather than his usual contacts. "And remind me to see my optometrist later this week." He pushed himself up in the bed, trying to get some idea of where he was.</p><p>He didn't get a response, but knew he wasn't alone in the room. "Steven?"</p><p>"You're awake," came a familiar voice. Harry frowned though, squinting into the dimly lit room before feeling around for his glasses. A slender hand took him by the wrist and another placed the glasses into his hand. He nodded gratefully and slipped them on. His frown turned into a scowl.</p><p>"How did I get here?"</p><p>"You seem to have... fallen from the sky over the quidditch pitch."</p><p>"I don't remember... Wait..." he said, looking around from the far too familiar bed. "My friend. Big guy, blond-"</p><p>The kindly old matron frowned. When he saw her face, he recognized that look. "Don't you dare tell me he's dead."</p><p>"I'm sorry but you were the only one."</p><p>With those words.... Harry just shut down. "I'd like to be alone, if you don't mind Madame."</p><p>She opened her mouth to speak but stopped herself and reconsidered as she watched the thin, pale man lay back down on his side, curling his body slightly into himself as if trying to hide. "I'll come to check on you again Mr..."</p><p>"Harry," he said, knowing she'd get the truth out of him eventually. "Just Harry."</p><p>"Of course, Just Harry," she replied softly, her own early suspicions confirmed from when he was dragged in, unconscious and covered in blood that, thankfully, had not been his own.</p><p>The matron pulled the curtain to give him privacy before turning to another of her patients. The unconscious teenager and the worried werewolf sitting by his bed. "Honestly, Remus. He'll be fine," she said. "Go and get some sleep while you can. It's going to be a circus in here tomorrow."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>
  <em>"Don't get too close to the Arch!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Jets of coloured light whizzed through the air around him. For only a split second he worried that maybe, just this once, Harry might have been right and he should have stayed at home. In bed. Where it was safe. Where he could lay there and worry about his perpetually angry wizard.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>It was just Steve's luck that most of the enemy were arrogant enough to not give him a second thought as he fist-fought his way across the chamber, his shield tightly strapped to his arm and taking most of the hits that came his way.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Somehow in the fray, they were separated.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Harry was on the platform in the centre of the chamber, a wand in each hand as he blocked and attacked. Over and over. He was fine. He was completely in his element. These were the types that he'd learned to fight with his eyes closed.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He was fine.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He was fine.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>He was hit with a red light.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>An orange one.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>His shielding broke when his arm did.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Steve threw his shield, cutting a swath between himself and the platform.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Harry staggered as he was pelted with another before he could raise his shield. He cried out in pain as his hand on his broken arm was shattered, but the wand never dropped. Instead.... it was turned to splinters. The other one was brought up angrily and Harry was about to kill the bastard that broke his arm and his hand when Steve's shield slammed into the side of their head before bouncing away to be caught.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I... had him..." Harry bit out when Steve was at his side again. The Captain brought up his shield to block another jet of light.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah. But you're too slow."</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"Sloth.... jinx..." he replied, and it was obvious the words were taking an effort just to get out as quickly as he could.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The crowd was thinning.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>They were winning.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>And then the ceiling started to come down above them. Harry's movements were still too slow. Steve grabbed him, held the shield over their heads, and tried to make for a safe place.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Distracted, neither man saw the spell that crashed into Steve's back, sending both men flying towards the archway and the translucent veil that hung within it.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>There was an explosion and they were falling and Harry clung to him, panic and fear that Steve had never seen in those usually confident if angry green eyes.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Above them, there was another blast and despite his best efforts Harry was knocked free of him. Instinctively Steve reached out, grabbing at him and getting hold of his arm. His broken arm and his shattered hand, still with splinters of holly wood still stuck to the palm. Harry screamed in pain as his broken arm was damaged further. As the pair of them were jerked too and fro, bounced and rocked along in some strange, mystic tear through reality.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>Hands, unseen and sharp dug into his arm, into his kicking legs as he tried to pull Harry closer to him. As Harry reached out with his good arm to try and get a hold and then...</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"NO!!!!" exploded out of Steve's mouth, the force of the single, broken cry welling up from deep in his chest as he scrambled to try and get another hold. He was jerked away as Harry was yanked in another direction.</em>
</p><p>
  <em>The last thing Steve Rogers remembered before hitting dirt was bringing his shield forward to cushion his fall.</em>
</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Steve woke sore and groggy and uncertain where he was. He was sore all over, like that time he woke in the SSR recovery room. Well, what they claimed was a recovery room. It was all just set dressing. He lay there, listening to the muffled voices coming from outside the room he was in. It was a decent room. A bit smaller than what he was used to these days, but he couldn't complain. He'd grown up with smaller.</p><p>The muffled voices grew louder, causing him to open his eyes as he listened.</p><p>
  <em>"Are you crazy?! We can't call the police!"</em>
</p><p>And the voice that shouted it was eerily recognizable. And it shouldn't have been.</p><p>
  <em>"He has dog tags. Which means he's military. Which means-"</em>
</p><p>And so was that one, but for entirely different reasons.</p><p>
  <em>"Yeah, dog tags with MY information on them! How do we explain THAT?!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"I don't know!" came the shouted reply. "Do I look like I know?!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"You're always reading those damn science fiction books!"</em>
</p><p>
  <em>"What does that have to do with anything!?"</em>
</p><p>Steve sat up in the bed when the voices outside calmed back down, at least for the moment.</p><p>His boots were off, but his stealth suit was still on. Feeling up at his neck for the familiar chain confirmed they had found his dog tags and he didn't have them anymore. Probably just trying to find out who the hell just kissed the ground right in front of them.</p><p>Logically... this couldn't be possible.</p><p>Looking around the room he spotted no attempt to make him feel at home or at ease. There was no radio playing a recorded ball game. There was no clean, crisp scent of a medical recovery unit. And there certainly wasn't a dame walking in to check on him under the pretense of welcoming him back.</p><p>No, this was a room that was hardly used, and mostly for storage from the look of the boxes piled in the corner of the room next to what looked like a closet.</p><p>He eased up out of the bed and looked himself over. Some of the cuts he'd received in the fight had healed over already. His shoulder was a bit stiff, but that was easily explained. It was the shoulder of his shield wielding arm. And even though the vibranium was damn near indestructible, it didn't change the fact that when it took a hard enough hit he still felt it travelling up his arm.</p><p>Speak of the shield... He didn't have a clue where it or his boots even were. And he wasn't going to be leaving this place without at least his metal frisbee. He finished checking the room over, finding outside the window what looked like a fenced in yard on a ground floor. He was contemplating an escape when there came a knock at the door. Steve turned from the window, body tensing up in anticipation for anything as the door opened.</p><p>The fight left him when he saw what lay on the other side.</p><p>Looking back at him was a familiar face with unfamiliar lines. He was older. Nearly twice as old as the last time he'd seen that face. Admittedly the last time he saw that face the man had been running away from them but... still... "You're awake," the man said, his steely blue eyes a little wide in surprise.</p><p>Steve looked from his face, briefly, to the arm. The left arm that should have been made of metal but instead there was a crude mix between plastic, wood, and metal jutting out from the shirt sleeve. His brief glance must not have gone unnoticed though as the man seemed to turn in a way to shift the clearly old injury from Steve's view. "Since you're awake, bathroom is at the end of the hall on the left. It's nearly lunch time so if you're hungry, kitchen's the other way."</p><p>"Thanks," was the first word Steve could think to say before the man started to back away from the door. Then he added, "Could I have my tags back? Had them so long I feel kind of naked without them."</p><p>The man with Bucky's face – an older Bucky's face – nodded before reaching in and pulling the door closed.</p><p>Steve crossed the room back to the bed and sat down heavily, leaning forward to put his head in his hands. This was weird. This was strange. He'd dealt with stranger but this was something he couldn't have been prepared for in his wildest imagination. Did he time travel.... forwards? To a time when they'd found Bucky? But then why wouldn't he have the metal arm? Or a better, modern replacement for it? Certainly Harry or Tony could come up with something better than what the man had... What had happened to him? Where, exactly, was this place? This house with a fenced in yard and men that sounded like... like himself and Bucky but weren't himself and Bucky. Couldn't be, he realized as he thought back on what he'd heard upon waking. The shouting between them. It was his own voice, of that he was certain. And now he knew without doubt the other belonged to James Barnes but... They hadn't seemed to recognize him.</p><p>And where the hell was Harry? What the hell had happened to them? What the fuck was that archway?</p><p>He sat up, ran a hand through his hair and drew in a slow, deep breath. One problem at a time. And right now, the easiest one to solve was getting himself cleaned up.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Contrary to popular belief, Albus Dumbledore was no old fool.</p><p>He saw an opportunity when it presented itself, or rather... himself.</p><p>When the strange man fell from the sky, partially wrapped in an invisibility cloak and clutching a wand that currently sat side by side with his own on the desk before him, he had at first assumed it to be some fell magic dreamt up by his great enemy Voldemort.</p><p>But when the man had been whisked away to the hospital wing and cleaned, the battered hides of his strange battle dress removed, it was obvious what, or rather who, the man was. There was no hiding that scar, somewhat faded though it may be. That man was Harry Potter. Older. With a magic about him that was impossibly stronger than his slight frame would suggest.</p><p>How he came to be here, now, the old headmaster could not know until the man woke. Any attempt to look into his mind as he slept was thwarted by the vigilant Madame Pomfrey. And the few glances into the younger Harry Potter's mind gave him not a hint as to the elder one's presence.</p><p>Soon... Soon he would get his answers. The man had been awake for some time now, and once he was released from the tender mercies of the school's matron, would be brought to this very office.</p><p>A silver tea service sat on the right end of his desk, and in his drawer a small bottle with a dram of clear, tasteless liquid sat waiting to be used.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Harry didn't want to be here.</p><p>He certainly didn't like the implications of the newspaper that was left for him on the low table next to his hospital bed.</p><p>It wasn't even July yet and already the Daily Prophet were running wild stories about the headmaster of Hogwarts going senile and Harry Potter's grief-fueled turn towards delusions in the wake of the Tri-Wizard Tournament's tragic conclusion.</p><p>The teenage version of himself had already left the hospital wing the evening before. And now it was his turn.</p><p>A fresh change of clothes were laid out for him on a chair when he woke. His basilisk hide uniform to wear over them had been repaired. The stitching was strong, Harry had noted as he tested the seams, but crude. It was clear whomever had done it had assumed initially that it might have been dragonhide and able to be repaired with magic. His pouch was also there with a clear sign that it had been tampered with, for at the opening, where the teeth guarded his most precious wordly possessions as well as his emergency kits, was a smear of dried blood. Slightly flaking now, but unmistakable. He had a few ideas of who might have tried to pry into his secrets, and all of them made him grin just a bit at the thought of them losing a finger or two.</p><p>Once he was dressed, and had taken the time to examine himself in a mirror provided in his little enclosure behind the curtains, Harry opened his pouch to take inventory. His remaining wand was missing, as was the invisibility cloak. The locket with the stone, however, remained safely around his neck. No doubt, however, whomever took his wand and cloak had also attempted to take the stone as well, only to discover it could not be taken off his person by anyone save himself.</p><p>Or Steve.</p><p>Harry smiled at the memory of discovering THAT unexpected surprise. It certainly was an idea to look into on some other rainy day. Assuming he could find the man and SHIELD hadn't snatched him up already. Assuming they had ended up in the same time even.</p><p>The curtain was suddenly pulled back. Madame Pomfrey did not look pleased to be releasing him, but he was, even according to her thorough examinations, fully healed of his injuries. A bit stiff, still, but even the last of the holly splinters had been pulled from the skin of his fully repaired and functioning hand. He looked up, then pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The first opportunity he had to swap them out for contacts, he was going to seize it. If he hadn't had to reapply that sticking charm, he wouldn't have been hit with that Sloth Jinx. And arrogant as it sounded even in his own thoughts, he and Steve would be safe and sound back home. Back at the compound. Maybe in training. Maybe curled up on Steve's sofa with a movie and pizza. Hell, he'd rather face Ultron and his murder bots again than deal with the shit that went down during the summer of 1967.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>After assessing that he was, in fact, quite safe for now in this.... whatever strange place this was, Steve did take advantage of the bathroom. Blue eyes read the bottles of everything he found. Looking for dates of any kind.</p><p>When it came to magic, anything could happen. He could have been flung into the future... which he doubted very much given the sight of Buck's arm. Or the past.</p><p>Or....</p><p>No. He didn't want to think about that. Though it would make things easier.</p><p>He didn't want to think about it because Harry wasn't with him. He'd...</p><p>He'd lost him. He hadn't been able to hold on.</p><p>And if... then that meant he could be anyWhere instead of anyWhen.</p><p>There was a knock on the bathroom door, pulling him from his thoughts as a familiar, but eerie, voice filtered through the door. "You alright in there, mister?"</p><p>"Y... Yeah. Just, uh, just-"</p><p>"When you're done, Buck's got food out. You, uh... allergic to anything?"</p><p>"No. No whatever you've got's fine," he said, then added quickly, "Thank you."</p><p>He listened as the feet shuffled away from the door, presumably towards the kitchen. Water was splashed on his face, then he scrubbed at it with a hand towel before examining himself in the mirror. His uniform was torn in places, which was to be expected given what he'd just been through.</p><p>With a final look at his reflection he turned away and left the bathroom, the hand towel in his hand as he took a closer examination of his surroundings along the hallway. There were a smattering of framed photos on the wall, leading him towards the kitchen. There was one of a man in uniform with some women. Bucky and his sisters, obviously. He stopped looking when he spotted one of an older Bucky and smaller, older Steve Rogers. It wasn't anything too... well. It was the fact his own face was smiling, looking back at him and older than he himself would ever likely look.</p><p>When he came out of the hallway, following his nose he found the two men sitting at a table. A third place was put down at the opposite end of the strange armed older Bucky. With the older, strangely small Steve sitting along one side of the table between them. "I.... didn't know what to do with this after I dried off my face. Kind of rude to leave it for the next person when you don't know me from Adam."</p><p>The lined, but familiar face broke out into a wide grin as he turned to the other man that was watching him from behind a pair of wire glasses. "I told you. I told you he'd do somethin like that."</p><p>"Doesn't mean anything."</p><p>"It does so. YOU said it had to be one of weird sci-fi things-"</p><p>"So uh.... the food smells good?"</p><p>Alternate Bucky pointed at him, still grinning. "Look at him Stevie! He's blushing! If that's not you-"</p><p>"It's not me!"</p><p>"I can go back to the room-"</p><p>"No you're going to sit down, eat, and tell us how a man can fall out of the sky and not die from it," Bucky said, pointing now at the chair with a plate of food in front of it. "For the record, I wanted to call the police. But HE insisted we get the wheelbarrow and drag your sorry ass home and put you to bed."</p><p>Not really knowing what else to do in this situation, Steve pulled out the chair with his free hand and sat down. The hand towel was draped over one thigh because he honestly didn't know what to do with the thing. Well he did, but he didn't see any obvious places to put dirty clothes or anything.</p><p>The three men ended up spending much of the meal in silence. But then, near the end, older, Smaller Steve looked him dead in the eye and said, "Are you an alien?"</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"Are you an alien?"</p><p>"No," he said, then glanced at Bucky. The situation was already so bizarre he really didn't know what was safe to say and what wasn't. "But I've fought them," he added. "And with one."</p><p>"Bullshit," Other Steve said.</p><p>"So you think I'm an alien because I fell out of the sky, but you don't believe that I've fought against aliens and alongside one? That about right?" Steve shrugged. "Believe what you want, kid. I'm too damn old to argue about it."</p><p>Other Bucky laughed, nearly choking on the last few bites of French fry. Once he'd had a hearty sip of water he was able to laugh again. "He's got that... that little crease!" he exclaimed, pointing at his own forehead, right between the eyes. "When you get mad at me and make the face!"</p><p>"I don't make a damn face-"</p><p>"THAT right there is the face! My God this is eerie!"</p><p>It would be another two hours before Steve would find out where he was and what year he was in.</p><p>New Jersey. Near where Camp Leigh should have been but wasn't. Because it didn't even exist.</p><p>And it was 1967.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Harry was pissed.</p><p>He was beyond pissed, actually.</p><p>But that was neither here nor there. He had work to do first.</p><p>Once he got his wand AND his cloak back from Dumbledore, who now sported a rather dark black eye that no bruise balm or healing spell would do away with quickly, Harry stalked the halls of the school with the intent of leaving. He had a super soldier to find, a dark lord to kill, a light lord to overthrow, and somehow in all of this figure out how to get home.</p><p>He stopped only when a fey looking third year stood up from where she was sitting on the steps at the school's entrance when he passed.</p><p>"Hello, Mr. Grim."</p><p>He stopped.</p><p>He turned.</p><p>He did not lower his hood, nor did he expose his face. But she smiled at him anyway and seemed to skip down the steps to close the distance between them. She reached out and snatched his hand, still smiling. "I'm so glad you've come."</p><p>"I..." He tried to snatch his hand away, but she held firm. It was a tight grip for a girl her age.</p><p>"You know this isn't your world, right? Things are... different. Will be different. Same, but not quite."</p><p>He tilted his head, but said not a word.</p><p>"I'm a Seer. But you already knew that, didn't you Harry?"</p><p>He reached up and cupped his other hand to her cheek. "My Moonbeam..."</p><p>"Not yet," she said, glancing towards the large doors of the school, where three very familiar faces were looking down at them, watching. A bushy head turning to whisper to the one with the glasses who still had his arm in a sling. "But maybe one day."</p><p>"No. Never."</p><p>"Never say never Harry Potter," she said simply. "I See... a man of metal in Gryffindor red. Streaking across the skies. He's quite handsome. I wonder if he likes pudding."</p><p>Harry smiled in the darkness of his hood, brushing a thumb just under her eye, just as he used to do when she'd panic and cling to him in the dark. As the aftershocks of the cruciatis ripped through her, through their unborn son, even if she hadn't been tortured in weeks. "He loves it," he said quietly. "Just like his mother."</p><p>She closed her eyes and put a hand over his, then let go and stepped back. "I See..." she said, then smiled sadly. "War.... not this war. Stars die and worlds end and... hearts broken. Six. The number six. Six lights. Six souls. Six stones. Always the number six. And in the centre of it all a blazing fire. It burns to look-"</p><p>"Then look away, Moonbeam."</p><p>"When the time comes," she said suddenly, eyes that were silvery-blue now with pupils blown so wide her eyes were almost entirely black. "Purple. Orange. Red. Green then yellow. Never yellow then green. Save blue for last. The last in, the last out."</p><p>After they parted ways, Harry would be working his way through the wards on the Gaunt shack and pondering over young Luna's sudden vision. It brought those damned odd dreams to mind again. The ones he pushed away because they were too.... too real. And it always had six lights... souls he supposed. Lights that became stones after fighting a blazing fire.</p><p>Harry hissed as he nearly tripped off a proximity ward.</p><p>He would get this horcrux first. Deal with it. Then find Steve. Hopefully in the span of a day. Maybe two.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>It was two days before a blue eagle made of light perched itself on the fourth chair at the dining table, making an awkward meal for the three men plus one teenage girl, more awkward than it had any right to be.</p><p>Three people at the table could see it.</p><p>The fourth could not.</p><p>The fourth being, surprisingly, small and angry older looking Steve.</p><p>The girl, Sarah, had just come back from the kitchen with a refill of pop for herself and Older Steve, and had hesitated at the sight of the glowing eagle preening itself and waiting.</p><p>"Uh...."</p><p>"Are you seeing this?" Bucky asked, looking at his Steve.</p><p>"Seeing what?"</p><p>"Must be a thing then."</p><p>Meanwhile Steve just sat looking from one person then the other.</p><p>"Sarah, you recognize that thing? It belong to any of your school friends?"</p><p>"Are you kidding? We don't learn that until sixth year!"</p><p>Older Steve rolled his eyes and shoved the food around his plate. "Ah. A Magic thing."</p><p>The girl froze. Bucky's eyes darted to Steve, then Other Steve. "Stevie," he hissed angrily. "Keep your damn mouth-"</p><p>"It's here for me," Steve said, causing three heads to turn towards him. Then a fourth since the eagle was waiting for him to acknowledge it before coming closer.</p><p>"What-"</p><p>"He's not an alien, he's a wizard!"</p><p>"Squib, actually," he said. "It's... It's complicated?" He licked his lips anxiously, looking away from them and to the glowing bird. "You got a message for me, Spangles?"</p><p>"Spangles?" the girl asked curiously.</p><p>Steve shrugged. The patronus came closer, and then it opened it's beak.<em> "I swear to Merlin the next time I tell you to STAY THE FUCK HOME YOU BETTER STAY THE FUCK HOME!"</em> a voice burst out angrily. Then, softer. <em>"I hope you're holed up somewhere safe. The ring I gave you has a tracking spell on it. I know... I know. Privacy and all that. But come the fuck on, Steven, you were frozen in ice for sixty some odd years and nobody could fucking find you. Like hell I'm gonna let something like that happen again. If you can, sit tight. I'm on my way. There's a few things- OI! I'm sending a bloody message here! Can you lot stop lobbing fucking killing curses my way for FIVE FUCKING MINUTES!- I'll see you soon, soldier. Love you."</em></p><p>And then, the eagle flapped its wings, leaped up, and disappeared in a shower of blue sparks.</p><p>"That.... Where'd that voice come from?" other Steve said after a long moment.</p><p>"You heard that?"</p><p>"I can't see the damn stuff but I can sure as shit hear it. What's going on?"</p><p>"That was... well-"</p><p>"You can send a message with a patronus?!" Sarah shouted, sitting in her chair and scooting closer to Steve. "Tell me how! Is it... is it a special incantation with the original or is it-"</p><p>"I don't know. He just kind of... waves his hand most of the time and-"</p><p>"Wandless patronus casting?! He must be an extremely powerful wizard-"</p><p>"Is no one going to address the fact the voice said he was FROZEN for SIXTY YEARS?!"</p><p>Bucky was laughing again. "He did say it was complicated."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Harry had the ring. Now he had the cup. And the goblins were super pissed at him about it. And... Lucius Malfoy was dead.</p><p>But that was more for personal satisfaction than any actual important purpose.</p><p>His first stop, after those three tasks were done, was to make a stop in Belfast.</p><p>And now, he had travel papers.</p><p>Legal travel papers.</p><p>And had to swear to bring Steve back with him when he went to retrieve him from where ever he had gotten to. So they could make sure to keep HIM secret as well.</p><p>Well... as secret as they could given what Harry intended to do now that they were there and he knew he wouldn't be messing up his own past.</p><p>When Harry had used the tracking charm to locate the match to his Lord's Ring, he did not expect to find a nice, normal looking house in New Jersey.</p><p>Nor did he expect to find the most basic of wards on the home. The kind commonly used on the houses of muggleborns. He glanced to the ominous figure of Death huddled in the shade of a nearby tree. "You sure this is the right place?"</p><p>The figure didn't respond. It merely tilted its approximation of a head as if trying to figure out if Harry was talking to it. Never had he had such a difficult time getting Death to at least talk to him. But ever since he had woken up, ever since he had first noticed it skulking about in a way that was just... not quite the same as he was used to... something just felt off.</p><p>He'd give it more thought later. Right now...</p><p>After looking around to see if anyone was around and assuring himself that there was no one, he whipped out the Elder Wand – HIS Elder Wand – and cast his patronus. "Find Steven and tell him I'm outside."</p><p>The bird rose up, circled him, then dove right into the house in front of him. Yup. It was the right place.</p><p>Soon, the door opened and an older man came out onto the front porch, his false arm hanging stiffly in his sleeve. "Well come on in then. Maybe you can tell us if he's an alien or not."</p><p>Harry chuckled, lowering his hood and walking towards the house. Once he got close enough to get a good look at the man from the bottom step up to the porch though- "Sweet Circe and Merlin's saggy tits!" he exclaimed before he could stop himself. "Bucky Barnes?"</p><p>"And you must be the man that sent the screamin' glowing bird?"</p><p>"You heard that?"</p><p>"Heard it? We all heard it. Stevie's pissed he couldn't see it."</p><p>"Why couldn't Steve... Wait..."</p><p>"Yeah. You can come explain that one, too Mister..."</p><p>"Harry," he said. "Just Harry." He climbed the steps quickly and followed the man inside, stepping out of the way so the door could be shut behind them.</p><p>"I got your loud wizard friend!"</p><p>"We're in the den!"</p><p>He followed the Other Bucky, the non-violent and non-brainwashed ex-soldier through the house until he was led into a room with a lot of framed magazines and drawings on the walls. Well... comic book covers at any rate. There was a large light table against one wall with shelves full of paints, pens, and all manner of artistic supplies.</p><p>A teenage girl stood looking over a man's shoulder as he sat at the table, working on something before Harry heard him.</p><p>"Thank God you're alright!"</p><p>Harry turned to see Steve by the window, a comic book in his hands that soon was tossed into the seat of a recliner as he passed by. Strong arms wrapped around him tightly as a large hand cradled his head against his shoulder. He stood there, letting himself be held as he took in the other man's scent for the first time in days. Harry knew he was wound up. He knew he'd been tense and volatile. But he didn't realize until now exactly how... how much in a bad way he was. Not until he was finally wrapped up in Steve's arms. Not until he was able to feel the familiar... weirdness of the strange magic he'd gifted to the man so long ago.</p><p>There was a cough behind him. And Harry couldn't help the whine in the back of his throat, almost like a disappointed puppy, when Steve let him go. "We haven't even been here a full week and you're causing trouble. Why were people trying to kill you?"</p><p>"Because I... I'd rather not say until we're alone."</p><p>"As touching as this is, we want answers," the smaller version of Steve said from his desk, turning around on his stool and tucking a pencil behind his ear. Thin arms crossed over his chest after a hand pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Or the lumberjack doesn't get his metal frisbee back."</p><p>Harry stared at him for a long moment, then frowned. "Well I'm sorry, Mr. Rogers," he said simply. "You won't be getting much out of me. What I can say is thank you for ensuring Captain Rogers had a safe place to recover from our ordeal and you and your family will be compensated for your trouble by the International Confederation of Wizards and the World Auror Response Department."</p><p>"You're a... a..." the teenage girl stammered. "You're an Auror?!"</p><p>"Merlin no! I'm an Unspeakable! And legally, that's all I can tell you about that."</p><p>Other Steve and Other Bucky seemed a little confused. Though Other Steve was more annoyed than anything. Sarah however... her eyes went wide and she suddenly became quite animated.</p><p>"We learned about those last year when signing up for elective courses and doing career planning! They work in the Department of Mysteries in most governments. Oh wow! A real Unspeakable! In my uncles' house! Are you one, too Captain Rogers?"</p><p>"No. I'm just a guy that gets dragged into the most insane crap these days."</p><p>Harry rolled his eyes and sighed. "And we are on a time crunch. We are currently working a very important case and I promise you once its over your family will have the answers they want. But I am oath bound at the moment and CANNOT tell you or I risk losing my life and my magic. And trust me when I say I really would rather not."</p><p>It took quite a bit of doing, and no small amount of subtle persuasive magic woven through Harry's voice, but they eventually were able to get Steve's shield, boots, and dog tags back from the otherwise very nice older gents and their niece, little miss Sarah Winifred Proctor.</p><p>As the teenage girl and one of her uncles, the Other Bucky stood on the front porch to see the two strange men off, Harry gently elbowed Steve in the arm. "It's nice, in a way," he said.</p><p>"What is?" Steve asked as Harry stepped just outside the ward on the property, checking up and down the perfectly normal New Jersey street.</p><p>"Them. A normal life. A place where James Barnes got to come home. Where Steve Rogers never became a lab rat."</p><p>"A world where we never met you mean."</p><p>Harry smiled, and Steve knew it was one of the special ones. The secret ones that meant Harry was up to something. "Now I didn't say that. Just... I have it on good authority that some things are the same... but not quite."</p><p>"And who told you that?" Steve asked as they stepped through the portal Harry had opened with his slingring, the pair of them disappearing without hearing the girl on the porch gasp in awe of Harry's magical feat.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The duo stayed in Belfast for a week while they sorted out the enigma that Captain Steven Grant Rogers presented by his mere existence.</p><p>"I don't like them poking at me."</p><p>"I know, love," Harry had said with a sigh and a squeeze of his hand while the WARD researcher examined him. "But you have to admit... it is kind of funny."</p><p>"It is not!"</p><p>"It is so," Harry replied as another researcher poked at him with their wand. "They've never seen something like this before. It's.... it's-"</p><p>"It's an invasion of- OW! You poke my shoulder one more time with that thing-"</p><p>"Be grateful they're not trying to take your blood," Harry pointed out, nodding towards the shelf of broken vials and still-smoking bits of wood. "I tried to warn them when I was here last time about that... No one ever listens until they lose a hand."</p><p>What had gotten them into this predicament?</p><p>Harry had gotten a little... over-enthusiastic after not having seen his fiance since they fell through the fucking Veil of Death and didn't, in fact, die. So he might have been rather loud during their very much life affirming tumble in the bed.</p><p>Which in and of itself was perfectly fine.</p><p>What was NOT perfectly fine was the magic Harry was bleeding off at the time.</p><p>The magic that was registering on various monitoring spells and protection enchantments in the building at the time.</p><p>Magic that, when they had been interrupted, seemed to have sort of... Clung to Steve.</p><p>And when he'd reached for something to throw at the intruders to their bedroom the book on the night-stand sort of... well... moved without him touching it. Without ANYONE touching it.</p><p>And so it was discovered, by the internal security team of WARD headquarters that their alternate reality visitor had just enough magic, just barely enough, to register not as a squib... but as a wizard.</p><p>All Harry had to say when they were cut loose from the research department was, "I don't know if Hermione's going to laugh or hit me with a book when we tell her." Steve just grumbled at him.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>After two weeks the men were cut loose with a brand new identity for each of them along with the legal travel papers.</p><p>The travel papers were just a bonus, identifying them as agents of WARD so that, should they get into a mess... well...</p><p>"Look at it this way," Harry said as Steve poked at his bland potatoes in the pub they were sitting in. "At least we have gainful employment for however long we're here."</p><p>"You're loving this."</p><p>"Not at all, actually. We should be dead. I was reasonably certain in my years studying the Veil before I joined up with WARD that it was one of the very few things that could kill me and keep me dead. But now..."</p><p>Steve reached for his bottle of coke. "Now?" he asked before taking a sip.</p><p>"Now I just have even more questions. If the thing doesn't kill people and instead sends them elsewhere... what happened to all the people who were thrown into it? Is there a difference when someone is forced through or goes through accidentally? What if someone is injured and trips through-"</p><p>"Like your godfather?"</p><p>Harry nodded.</p><p>Steve took another sip, then put the half-empty bottle down. "Harry, I think we're lucky we ended up in the same place... give or take a few thousand miles. Kind of strange we each landed right in front of the selves from this... whatever this place is."</p><p>"I'm calling it an alternate timeline. Seeing as, well, your life ended up taking a completely different direction."</p><p>They finished their lackluster dinner in companionable silence before retiring to their rented room for the night.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Steve and Harry were in this alternate world a grand total of two and a half months when, while staking out an old manor house and trying to figure out how to get inside without its occupants knowing, an owl swooped in front of Harry and dropped a letter.</p><p>A letter that the moment he picked it up, morphed into a Talker. Like the Howler, only not as volatile.</p><p>"Oh... oh this is bad..."</p><p>Harry said as a very familiar message started to be conveyed by the Talker.</p><p>"What?"</p><p>"I was really hoping that wouldn't happen here."</p><p>"What happened?"</p><p>"Dementors," Harry said. "At my Aunt Petunia's house."</p><p>The pair were gone from their perch across the square that was Grimmauld Place before a second owl arrived to deliver a letter intended for a very different and much younger Harry Potter. The only sign they had been present were a few candy wrappers, a forgotten pair of muggle binoculars, and a few empty beer cans.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>A very confused teenager was being dragged from Number 4 Privet Drive by what looked like.... "You fell on me!"</p><p>"I did no such thing!"</p><p>"Yes you did! Right out of the bloody sky and-"</p><p>The shouting behind them stopped, only to be replaced by the boy's aunt's screaming and a voice bellowing, "Ma'am, I don't need magic to deal with bullies like him."</p><p>The man in the black and dark green long coat with the shaggy black hair cackled. "Steve, leave it!" he shouted back. "We haven't the time before the chickens show up!"</p><p>"What about my things?!"</p><p>"The owl's not here, your wand is in your pocket, and I have a feeling that when we get where we're going a rather excitable little invisible friend will make sure you have all your stuff. Now, when I let go, don't run off Mr. Potter."</p><p>The man let go of the boy's good arm and raised his hands in front of them. He did some odd little gestures with his fingers before one hand started moving in circles a bit apart from his other, stationary hand. Once the portal was opened, showing a large lobby of sorts with huge glass windows and high vaulted ceilings, the man in the black long coat turned back to his partner and gave a sharp whistle.</p><p>"Oi! Soldier! Time to go!"</p><p>Steve gave the large man, who was silent only on account of his broken jaw, one more warning look before turning away to join the other two. He glanced down at the kid version of his fiance and tried for a disarming smile. "Sorry about that. Don't like bullies."</p><p>"Neither do I," the boy said quietly as the man in the coat ushered them through. Steve went first, to show that it was perfectly harmless. The boy went second, glancing back to see the other man whip out his wand, a wand that looked just like his headmaster's, and with a smirk throw a quick spell towards his aunt. The last memory 15 year old Harry Potter would ever have of his aunt Petunia would be the woman's face morphing into something even more horse-like and rather than a shout of horror, a nicker and a whinny of surprise and shock before the golden ring of sparks spiralled closed on the scene.</p><p>He felt a heavy hand on his shoulder as the man slipped the wand up his sleeve. "Come on. Healer Reynolds is waiting for us to get Potter in for a proper exam and then I'll get a couple of goblins to see about that scar of his," he said, shoving his hands deep into the pockets of his black and green coat.</p><p>"Where... where are we? What was that... that ring we passed through? It's a lot better than portkey and way better than a floo." the boy said to the taller blond man as the other in the coat started walking quickly ahead of them.</p><p>"He calls it a sling portal. Not the standard kind of stuff you'd learn in school I think," Steve said. "And we're in Belfast, Northern Ireland."</p><p>"And this place?"</p><p>"WARD headquarters. You know what that is?"</p><p>"No."</p><p>"Uh.... magic police, but for the whole world."</p><p>"You're not a wizard, are you?" the boy asked.</p><p>"It's..." Steve started, glancing ahead of them to where Harry had come to a stop at the lifts. "Complicated."</p><p>Not much else was said until they were out of the lifts on the Infirmary Level. Even then, Steve and Harry opted to wait outside since a Healer consult was supposed to be confidential. "This could take a few hours. Lets go get something to eat and check in on that witness protection for him."</p><p>"Or you could get something to eat and then take a nap. You're running yourself ragged Harry."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Harry fell asleep during lunch.</p><p>Steve carried him back to the rooms they were borrowing for the duration of younger Harry's stay at HQ.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The teenager was angry. He wasn't just angry, he was throwing things.</p><p>And when he was done, the chi shield went down and the older Harry wrapped him in his arms and held him as he cried.</p><p>Steve made them hot chocolate.</p><p>When the boy had eventually excused himself to go to bed, Harry and Steve sat down at the table with three chairs and the rolls of parchment they had been given on Harry's health. All five of them.</p><p>"You said there was a nurse at the school," Steve said as he read through them. He'd gotten quite used to figuring them out after Hermione had shown him exactly what it was she was doing during many of his visits to her office. "How the hell could she have missed all of this?"</p><p>"I found out a lot of things after the war that had I known about them sooner I could have had corrected."</p><p>"Like your eyesight."</p><p>"Like my eyesight," Harry affirmed, glancing to that feral black mass in the corner of the room. "The important thing here is we can help HIM the way I never was. The way no one ever bothered to try until it was too late and I was stuck like this."</p><p>"And what happens when we find a way home? Because we WILL get home, Harry. What then?"</p><p>"I.... I've had an idea but I wasn't sure it would even work until I found you with Bizzarro Barnes and Grumpy Old Rogers... He needs a proper home. A proper family. I think... maybe... if not them then perhaps Bucky's sister. She already has one magical child. Fostering another wouldn't be much of a hardship."</p><p>"And his friends? The family he's made here?"</p><p>Harry sighed and rubbed at his eyes. The contacts were not quite agreeing with him, but it was all he could find in this time period in this world. "I don't know. I just... I just have to trust that it will all work out somehow. But I'm not letting that boy go back there. Not back to that cursed school. Not back into the clutches of that headmaster of his. And I certainly am not letting that boy near Severus fucking Snape if I can help it."</p><p>"This was the year-"</p><p>"This was the year. At least if his fool of a godfather knows he's nowhere near England, that he's safe with people that can be trusted, then maybe he won't be a fucking idiot and put himself in danger like that."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>In the time between when they had basically kidnapped the teenager for his own good and September 1st, Harry still had not figured out how to get into Grimmauld Place unnoticed. He could open a portal, sure, but there was no telling who was there at any given time. And then there was Kreacher, who hated Sirius but hated everyone else in the place just as much.</p><p>It was Steve, though, who came up with the simplest solution.</p><p>"You know what the inside of Kreacher's old cabinet looks like, right?"</p><p>"Yeah..."</p><p>"So open a small sling portal into it and tell him the same thing you told him before."</p><p>"But what if he's not in there?"</p><p>"You mean to tell me that elf wouldn't have some kind of weird magic security spell or something on his own sleeping place?"</p><p>Harry had to give Steve ten pound notes when he was proven to be right.</p><p>The locket was now in Harry's hands, and by the time the first finally came, two men and a teenager were sitting in Gringotts. One man was sighing in exasperation. The teenager looked rather angry. And the other man with the shaggy black hair and a bit of scruff on his face was smug as a small team of goblins brought in an obsidian chest. The lid was lifted carefully and the cup was shown. The locket and a tiara were placed inside with it.</p><p>"There is one left to be destroyed, and i will take care of it, and its creator personally. However before then... Harry, I believe there was some business you needed to discuss with your account manager first?"</p><p>"Actually, I'd rather his head on a spike!"</p><p>"Bloodthirsty little wizard isn't he?"</p><p>Harry grinned and brushed his hair out of the way of the scar on his forehead. As faded as it was, the gesture would still get his point across to the goblins before them. "He's a teenager. Of course he's angry. I remember what I was like at that age."</p><p>The one they had been dealing with swallowed and gave a nod, beady eyes looking from the teenager to the scruffy man. Then, to the barely-wizard with them. "And you?"</p><p>Steve shrugged. "I'm just here to keep the bigger one from turning this place into a crater. He does that when he's angry."</p><p>The goblin shivered under the hard, green stares. "It shall be done, Lord Potter. A new accounts manager will be assigned-"</p><p>"Griphook will be the accounts manager. We will deal with no other. And... he will be transferred to New York along with ALL the Potter accounts. Even the Secret Vault," Harry said, then looked to his younger counterpart. "There's very important things in that vault that you are going to want to see."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The teenager that was Harry James Potter sat on his bed.</p><p>It was the same bed he'd had for weeks now since being dragged away from his aunt and uncle's by the two strange men.</p><p>He had a new wand, a new wardrobe, even... well... a new name if he wanted it. An entirely new life stretched out before him – and he didn't even have to give up magic.</p><p>It had been difficult to make the decision not to go back to Hogwarts and to leave the country entirely. But... the big soldier guy, Steve, had sat him down when the crazy one left to do... whatever it was he did when he left WARD headquarters. He'd gone through the parchments and the papers the healers had given them and explained what he could from what the healers had told the two men who'd taken custody of him.</p><p>His pride at being able to beat the Imperius Curse was diminished when he learned it was only because he was potioned up to the gills. He was STILL flushing out the personality altering substances that had been laced in his food practically his whole life. He'd been on them so long, the healers had told Steve and the crazy Grim guy that if they did the normal method it'd kill him.</p><p>But... worst of all... he had that thing inside him. That... that disgusting piece of Voldemort himself. Right in that scar. The scar that was starting to heal over now. The scar that once it were healed, he was told a muggle doctor could remove it for him. Could remove ALL the scars that littered his body. Once his blood had been filtered through and the venom-tears combination removed from it and from him.</p><p>Harry would miss his friends. He would miss Hogwarts.</p><p>One day, when he was older, he could write to them. Or in Hermione's case call her. Tell them what had happened and where he had gone. One day, once the danger had passed... but until then he had to disappear. "Their minds are unguarded," the scruffy man had said. "You don't think the bastards that did this to you didn't do something to them, too?"</p><p>It was a sobering thought, to realize that just because they were his friends, they'd have been subjected to similar treatment without ever knowing it.</p><p>Harry was startled out of his thoughts when there was a knock at his door. He didn't bother getting up. "Come in!" he called out, and the door opened just enough for a head to poke in.</p><p>It was Steve. Harry was glad of this. The other guy... scared him a bit.</p><p>"You packed up and ready to go?"</p><p>"Yeah."</p><p>"Where is everything?"</p><p>Harry pointed to the couple of trunks on the desk. "Grim made sure they were self-shrinking when the right password is said. That way I wouldn't get in trouble for using magic outside of school."</p><p>Steve grinned. "Smart. We could have used some of these back home. Would make toting everyone's equipment a heck of a lot easier. Well, grab 'em and come on. The portkey leaves in an hour and there's still some stuff they need you to sign. You might be emancipated in the magic world, but the no-maj one's still going to need some adults to handle your stuff for a few years."</p><p>"Are you sure they don't want someone... well...-"</p><p>"Trust me. Your new family will love you. And it's a big family, too. Now come on. Stop sitting here running your head in circles. You know me and Grim would back any decision you made, even if we didn't like it."</p><p>Harry nodded and stood up to retrieve his trunks.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>While a younger Harry was lost in his head back at HQ, an older, a bit crazier, and slightly scary Harry James Potter was sitting in a nondescript office taking coffee with a squib, a muggle, a MACUSA social worker, the deputy headmaster of an American magical school, and a caseworker from WARD's witness protection program.</p><p>All of that was to say... he was very very bored while everyone around him talked about Harry Potter the younger.</p><p>The muggle was grumpy, just as he was the last time Harry had seen him. But for entirely different reasons than the last time he'd seen him.</p><p>When all the official looking people had agreed they needed a break because the case of The-Boy-Who-Lived was rather involved and complicated, Harry had offered to take the squib and muggle out of the office for a bite to eat, even if it was in the cafeteria downstairs.</p><p>The first thing that was asked once the three men had something to eat was... why them?</p><p>So, Harry shrugged and told them.</p><p>"Mr. Barnes is related by blood. So are his sisters; but of his sisters only Rebecca can see magic and only Rebecca could be considered as an alternate foster parent for him."</p><p>"You sure about this?"</p><p>"Yes. His great uncle Charlus left England with his wife Dorea to escape the wizarding war that was brewing. Her family were extremely dark and supported the Dark Lord. His family... well, clearly didn't. She was a white sheep but he was a black sheep and it did not bode well for either of them. Especially when they married the enemy so to speak instead of the ones they were supposed to." Harry ate a bite of his rather dry baked potato before continuing. "They changed their names, gave up their magic, and moved to America. No one noticed they had left until it was too late to look for them. The goblins had given them use of an unrestricted time turner in exchange for their magic. A time turner, to put it bluntly, allows its users to go back in time a predetermined amount. Winifred and George Barnes had already been living in New York for quite some time by that point, with a little boy on the way. As for Harry, well, Charlus had a younger brother named Fleamont. Fleamont had a son named James. James had a son named Harry. And the only reason we even know what happened to Charlus and his wife is because Charlus was never disowned. Everyone assumed he and his wife had been killed. But on the Potter family tapestry, it lists James Buchanan Barnes beneath their names, alongside Rebecca. Unfortunately, the other 2 sisters aren't listed since they don't even have enough magic to be squibs."</p><p>Harry shrugged as the two men sat staring at him, their food nearly forgotten as the scruffy Unspeakable continued to pick at his food before pushing his plate forward half-eaten.</p><p>It was grumpy old non-serum Steve that broke the silence that fell on their little table first. "Why us and not his sister?"</p><p>"I did ask his sister first. She's already got a daughter at Ilvermorny. She knows what it takes to raise a magical child. But she told me to come back only if the two of you said no. And here we are. It's not too late to change your minds. You haven't actually signed anything yet. Kid's not due here for another hour."</p><p>To Harry's surprise a very familiar look graced the other Steve's features, calling him stupid without even saying anything. Harry bent his head to hide the fondness of his smile. The more things were different... the more they were the same.</p><p>His younger counterpart would fit right in with the older couple.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The dimension travelers watched as the two men and the teenager left MACUSA's offices out the front door. The teenager would be starting at Ilvermorny after Christmas break. Until then he was working with tutors to make up for everything he didn't learn at Hogwarts.</p><p>As for Harry and Steve... well...</p><p>When they got back to their suite at HQ, Harry threw up every privacy ward he could think of before throwing himself onto the sofa with a groan. "Before you start in on me about secrets and all that shit again Steven, I was going to tell you about Bucky once we finally caught him. And no, I didn't know about it myself until well after the time travel and before we found out he was alive. Because he's a squib, magical methods of tracking him are extremely limited and i have to be within a certain radius in order to even sense him with my family's magic."</p><p>"Does anyone back home know?"</p><p>"My son knows we have a long lost cousin out there, but does not know who it is. I think he'd find it hilarious, actually, when he realizes it's his dad's fiance's best friend. And how messed up is that? In this world the pair of you ended up shacked together and now you're foster parents to me. I'm sure my therapist is going to love this one."</p><p>Harry sighed, rubbing at his eyes and silently cursing the 1960s for their shitty contact lenses before he reached down to unfasten his boots. "If you want to give me a good long shout, can it wait for tomorrow?"</p><p>"I'm not going to shout at you."</p><p>"Then get that damn disapproving look off your face."</p><p>"I'm running out of ways to get through that thick skull of yours that you don't have to do everything alone anymore, Harry. You've been carrying the world on your back since you were a baby. What you just did for that kid... taking his burden away and heaping it on yourself without hesitation-"</p><p>"Letting you help me got us into this mess!"</p><p>"Then let me help you help US get out of it!"</p><p>"No! This is magic, Steven! You can't just punch your way out of this!"</p><p>"What do you think I'd be doing right damn now if I hadn't fallen through that thing with you?! I'd be back in New York, fighting with Tony and probably that Strange guy about how to get you back home! Any way you slice it, I'd still be trying to help you because-"</p><p>"Because you're a stubborn son of a bitch who doesn't know when to just shut the fuck up and stay down."</p><p>"No, because I'm a stubborn son of a bitch in love with an even more stubborn son of a bitch. And that's what people like us do for each other."</p><p>They traded barbs a few more times before Steve threw his hands up in exasperation and stomped out of the room.</p><p>Harry found the bedroom door locked that night, just because Steve was being a petty little shit.</p><p>Harry didn't bother to unlock it and slept in the spare room they'd had for his younger self.</p><p>Because Harry was also a petty little shit.</p><p>Neither of them slept very well that night.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Over the next three and a half months, younger Harry's social worker let them know he was settling in well with his new family in New Jersey. She couldn't give them details of course since it was a private matter. But they were very surprised when they found out that Mr. Potter the younger had been offered a more formal and permanent adoption as an early Christmas present. It was the muggle Steve's insistence actually.</p><p>Steve and Harry were surprised to receive a card via international Owl Post from the boy and found it signed Henry "Harry" Rogers-Barnes.</p><p>As for the super soldier and the unkillable wizard, they couldn't do much in regards to Voldemort until closer to Christmas. So they filled that time with their supposedly gainful employment. Chasing and capturing dark wizards. Busting smuggling rings. Saving kneezles from trees. Supposedly working the case of the Missing-Boy-Who-Lived if only to make sure certain unsavoury elements didn't get too close to the truth.</p><p>All in all, it was business as usual for Harry and Steve. Fighting bad guys. Saving the day. Even if there was more magic involved than Steve was used to.</p><p>And then... the night they were waiting for came. When they weren't travelling, Harry was keeping close watch on the Department of Mysteries. Sure enough, even though they didn't have Harry in their clutches, the Order was still guarding that damned prophecy. Likely because Neville was the next possible candidate to fill the shoes younger Harry left behind.</p><p>But this night... this night he knew was the one they had been waiting for. Steve had come with him. They had hidden themselves away at just the right little alcove to wait for that damn snake. That final horcrux. It would take them to Voldemort.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>"Well that was anticlimactic," Steve said, leaning against the broken railing of the stairs.</p><p>"I honestly didn't expect him to just be.... sitting here waiting," Harry replied, genuinely shocked at how damn easy it was.</p><p>The snake was dead, it's carcass left at the Ministry with Arthur Weasley. To be found and used for an antivenom. The trinket on the end of the snake's tail was still clutched in one of Harry's hands and the other still held his Elder wand.</p><p>Steve looked down at the shield, brushing bits of skull and gray matter from its surface. "Did you really have to blow up his head?"</p><p>"I was surprised, okay! I intended to just stun him, not... not..."</p><p>"Not throw an exploding curse in his face? So that wasn't intentional?"</p><p>"No, it was not. I had HOPED to have him dealt with in court. Because he was, well, going to be the star witness against the headmaster."</p><p>"After some of your patented persuasion?"</p><p>"Yes. Now... damn it!..... Ugh! I've got bits of him in my hair!"</p><p>And so it was that the night Arthur Weasley was attacked, Harry Potter defeated Lord Voldemort with a surprise bombarda (a surprise to everyone involved) in the remains of the Potter's Cottage where it all began, in this dimension, 14 years ago.</p><p>WARD operatives arrived to cordon off the site once Harry sent word back that the job was done and Voldemort was no more. The British Ministry was in all manner of a tizzy when ICW representatives showed up, led by the head of WARD to begin an audit of the court records for the last 50 years.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Across the ocean a teenage boy sitting and taking a practice placement test with his Potions tutor at his adoptive parents' dining table was brought a letter that an owl had dropped on his pop's head while he was outside checking the non-magical mail box.</p><p>"This came for you," non-serum Steve said, offering the letter to him. "Can you tell the owls to stop droppin' stuff on my head? One of these days it's going to be a box of books or something."</p><p>"I can't control the owls, pops," the boy had replied as he took the letter and ripped it open. Green eyes widening in shock as he read it a second time. "They did it! They really did it!"</p><p>"Did what?"</p><p>The boy didn't say a thing. Instead he jumped up from his chair, running to his new dad and wrapped him in a slightly-too-tight hug. "It's over!" he exclaimed. "It's finally over!"</p><p>When grumpy non-serum Steve would finally get to read the letter, he finally understood. They'd be celebrating more than just the New Year soon enough.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>With Voldemort dead, it was all a matter of clean up after that.</p><p>Of course, a certain twinkly-eyed man didn't want to believe the Darkest Dark Lord to have ever Dark Lorded was, in fact, entirely dead.</p><p>Kaput.</p><p>Pushing up cursed daisies.</p><p>Didn't dare pass Go and collect 200 galleons.</p><p>No, he insisted that the missing boy was the key to stopping the Dark Lord.</p><p>Even though WARD agents had come, with full ICW authority, to arrest Severus Snape. Snape who after given certain assurances was given a lighter sentence if he squealed.</p><p>When faced with the man who'd fallen from the sky over the quidditch pitch the night the Potter brat had unwillingly helped resurrect the Dark Lord to a body, he folded rather quicker than expected.</p><p>When questioned by Rita Skeeter a few months into his incarceration at Nurmengard – a much kinder prison to Azkaban it turned out – all he would say was that it had seemed as if Lily Potter herself had returned from Paradise like an avenging angel to exact her swift and terrible revenge upon the Dark Lord before turning her burning green gaze towards himself.</p><p>Of course, Rita did sensationalize it a bit.</p><p>But she did include the warning Snape had to pass on when the story went to print. Any who saw that same green gaze boring into them... they had best hope they've done nothing worthy of its vengeance.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Henry Rogers-Barnes wrote a letter of thanks.</p><p>It was addressed to "Mr. Grim and Mr. Steve."</p><p>It was sent not by international owl post, but by Hedwig herself who after such a long flight was rewarded by older, grimmer Harry with plenty of cooked chicken, owl treats, and some very affectionate little head and chest scratches and pampering before being sent back home.</p><p>The letter was long. It was thoughtful. It told the men who had saved his life that he was happy with his new parents. He was happy with his new school and had made new friends... though he did miss his old ones terribly, he understood why he could not contact them yet. Not until the OTHER problems outside those caused by Voldemort were dealt with. He told them all about his new school, and that he'd been sorted into a house called Horned Serpent, and that his gift to speak to snakes was seen as just that, a gift rather than sign of evil. A page and a half was dedicated to why – one of the school's founders was a Parselmouth!</p><p>Steve had smiled when he read the letter, giving each page to Harry as he finished.</p><p>"You did a good thing for that kid," Steve said when Harry had broke down crying. "You wanted to help him the way you weren't. And you did. You saved his life and so many others."</p><p>Harry didn't eat anything but chocolate the rest of the day. Steve, for once, didn't argue.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Things in the UK were still a mess by the time Steve and Harry had reached the 1 year mark of being stuck in this other world.</p><p>One faction said the Dark Lord died the first time. Another faction said he was still around. A third said he'd convinced Harry Potter to join him. And still MORE insisted on ignoring the whole mess despite the ICW breathing down their necks.</p><p>There was quite a bit of excitement in Grimmauld Place, and for once it had absolutely nothing to do with the missing teenage wizard. On the 18th of June, 1996, Sirius Black received a letter from the investigative department of the ICW.</p><p>That same day, Albus many names Dumbledore was notified of his removal as Supreme Mugwump.</p><p>The Daily Prophet was notified, as was the Quibbler and many other international news outlets that the trial of Sirius Black would at last be held. Why, one might ask?</p><p>Because the no-maj made squib now barely a wizard strode into the British Ministry of Magic like he owned the place, dressed like a muggle with a scruffy looking wizard trailing along behind him with a manic grin on his face.</p><p>The big, barely magical bloke had a small metal cage made of reinforced goblin steel. And inside the cage was a rat with a silver arm.</p><p>This cage was dropped right on the desk of the head of the department of magical law enforcement Auror Amelia Bones.</p><p>"What is the meaning of this?! How did you get in here?!"</p><p>"Classified, ma'am," Steve had said. "But I think you'll find this rat a lot more interesting than we are."</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>The scruffy one's bright green eyes lit up with glee. "That's Peter Pettigrew!"</p><p>"Peter Pettigrew is dead."</p><p>"I assure you, ma'am," Steve said. "He's just been stunned."</p><p>The moment the truth was proven to be, well, the truth, owls and memos were sent flying.</p><p>The Wizengamot would not be holding the trial of Sirius Black.</p><p>The ICW representatives visiting with the head of WARD would.</p><p>And so it was, a week after the date when Sirius Black should have died, he was a free man.</p><p>A free man forced into therapy before he'd find out more than "Your godson is alive. He is with a new family that loves him and he is happy."</p><p>All the way across the pond, Henry Rogers-Barnes received a surprise copy of the Daily Prophet and The Quibbler thrown through a small, sparking golden portal at him with a grinning, unshaven face looking back at him. "Happy early birthday. Better than any broom." And the portal was gone.</p><p>The teenager stared at it, as did his new cousin Sarah Proctor. She elbowed him in the ribs. "He has GOT to show us how to do that!" she exclaimed before snatching one of the newspapers from him to see what it said.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>The Death Eaters were rounded up and dealt with. Unmarked supporters were investigated, put on trial when necessary or obliviated, bound, and cast out of the magical world to fend for themselves.</p><p>Harry and Steve had moved into a flat in London near what would have been a hidden SSR research bunker in their world.</p><p>It was also near a half-way decent non-magical pub.</p><p>With Harry's personal mission in this dimension sorted out, a teenager saved the same terrible fate that befell him, long lost family reunited in a way no one really had expected, there wasn't much left to do a little over a year after they had arrived in this strange parallel world.</p><p>Aside from trying to find a way home of course.</p><p>But for now...</p><p>For now the two men sat in the pub near their flat, had a pint or two even though Steve couldn't get drunk, and watched the people coming and going.</p><p>Finding a way home... that was tomorrow's problem.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Week One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony had rebuilt his mansion in Malibu. New foundations and all. Remodeled with magical people in mind this time. And this was where he now lived. Safely across the country from the Avengers, but still quite easy to reach for family if they wanted to see him.</p><p>He did this for two reasons. The first, his company's headquarters were still in LA and though Pepper remained as CEO (he had refused to accept her resignation after the Hammerdrone incident), he still liked to keep his hands on the rudder when it came to R&amp;D. And the bulk of R&amp;D was still done at the LA offices.</p><p>The second... he couldn't live with Maximoff. He couldn't trust himself not to act on his rather deserved paranoia in regards to her and her powers.</p><p>He hated that Harry had just let her have his rooms at the tower, even just temporarily. But after the two had a rather rousing shouting match about it behind closed doors he understood. Harry had his entire floor warded up so tight it was like an emergency containment cell. Monitoring charms going day and night to keep track of any odd fluctuations in his own magic. Checking for spikes and patterns that might help unravel the mystery of why he was the way that he was and how his own magic worked. Plus, there was a bitter and angry house elf that if the woman stepped out of line he'd be more than happy to make her pay for it.</p><p>Tony was appeased, but he still wasn't happy about it.</p><p>So he played nice for as long as he could stand it. Even arranged for her brother's remains to be dealt with. Had helped Harry design the locket he'd had commissioned for her, and watched as the man laid enchantment after enchantment over it from a book of spells they'd retrieved from the vault Tony inherited from his mother's family. And THAT was to cover up what he'd REALLY done to the damn thing.</p><p>When Tony had asked what the rather nasty dark hex Harry had laid on the locket first was, he didn't get a response other than, "Pavlov's dogs."</p><p>Tony saw what he meant when the woman had tried, and failed, to get into someone's head in the tower. She was out for a full day with one hell of a headache. And Harry had been so very kind, offering her a potion or an aspirin for it as if it wasn't his own damn fault she was moaning and groaning about migraines.</p><p>Despite Harry's subtle revenge for what she'd done to the team – and most specifically Tony once the man had come clean to his father about the disturbing vision he had initially attributed to Loki's sceptre – he still didn't feel quite safe around her on a daily basis.</p><p>So he and Pepper had moved back to Malibu.</p><p>Rhodey had taken his place on the team.</p><p>Vision had taken Thor's.</p><p>Wanda had taken Bruce's.</p><p>And Sam took Clint's.</p><p>Despite Cap and Nat sticking around, it wasn't the same. Couldn't be the same.</p><p>And Tony had needed to step back for a while. Even Harry had agreed on that one. Pepper though was the most grateful for his stepping away. She never liked that he was Iron Man. She believed that he had this almost psychological need to put himself in harm's way. That he didn't feel quite... quite whole unless he was in the suit fighting for his life. Fighting for everyone's lives. His therapist said it was an addiction to the adrenaline. That he'd replaced his former vices with high-stakes danger situations.</p><p>Tony hated fighting, actually.</p><p>It's why he had been working on Ultron, even in just the theoretical sense, in the first place.</p><p>It's why, ultimately, he had designed the Hulk Buster and Veronica. To STOP the mean green smashing machine. To end the fighting faster if Hulk went on a rampage.</p><p>It was why, though he didn't agree and hated doing it, he had ultimately designed the Iron Marauder suit in case he ever had to take Harry out of the fight for a while, too.</p><p>The reality of it all though was that Tony never actually went looking for trouble. Never really had. It's just that trouble, when it found him, tended to escalate higher and higher. Something that his father had warned him of not long after their first meeting. It was the Potter Luck, as everyone had called it.</p><p>Which is why he wasn't surprised that two months after the Avengers moved into the compound and he and Pepper had moved back to Malibu, he was in his workshop staring at a man who he knew only by reputation and through a painting. He was sitting in the floor, bewildered by all the machinery and technology around him. Long hair was black with streaks of gray, matted and knotted as if he'd been crawling around in sewage. He smelled like it, too.</p><p>"Who the hell are you?" Tony demanded, rising from his seat at his desk, a gauntlet summoned from the nearest suit sliding quickly and easily onto his hand as he armed himself, quite literally.</p><p>"Sirius Black. Who the hell are you?" the gruff voice replied, eyeing the glowing palm of the man in front of him.</p><p>"Iron Man," Tony replied. "FRIDAY, I need you to call the old man."</p><p>"Which one, Boss?"</p><p>"Magic man. And tell him it's... Family business."</p><p>"On it, Boss."</p><p>Tony held out his other arm, towards the nearest suit and the remaining gauntlet came to him, sliding just as easily on. By the time he brought the other one around on the dirty, smelly man again the repulser was primed and ready to fire. "I'm gonna ask you one more time," Tony demanded. "Who are you, really? Because Sirius Black's been dead for the last 47 years."</p><p>"Boss? We have a problem."</p><p>"So do I. Now get him here NOW."</p><p>"About that... He's not coming."</p><p>"Why?"</p><p>"He and Captain Rogers are missing."</p><p>"Fuck.... Now what?"</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Now what?</p><p>Well, that was obvious. He held the smelly man at repulser point, after having to fire off a warning shot or two to keep him from moving around. He'd instructed FRIDAY to call Hermione and tell her to get her ass to Malibu.</p><p>He'd received a patronus in response, but the man seemed to show some kind of recognition of the voice that came out of the glowing otter. "I can't just drop everything and come visit when I'm trying to track your father down, Tony."</p><p>Another otter had come after Tony told FRIDAY to send a video clip of the man in the room.</p><p>Within fifteen minutes there was a banging on the outside of his workshop door.</p><p>There next to a tired and worried looking Pepper Potts was Hermione Granger-Weasley, looking even more tired but now... now she was in shock. Brown eyes wide in surprise as she looked through the glass at the impossible sight before her.</p><p>FRIDAY let them in, and Hermione had whipped her old vine wand out, pointed at the man claiming to be his father's dead godfather and demanded rather coldly, "Who did Hermione Granger and Sirius Black catch in the attic of Grimmauld Place during winter holiday of 1967?"</p><p>The grey eyes narrowed at her before the man nodded his understanding. She didn't trust that he was who he said he was to the man with the strange armoured arms. "My cousin Nymphadora," he replied. "But Harry didn't know it was her because she looked like Fred Weasley at the time." Then he laughed. It was a pitiful thing, really, compared to the laughs the three others in the workroom had heard from the painting on a regular basis.</p><p>Hermione lowered her wand, indicating for Tony to do the same with his gauntlets. "It's him," she said. "Harry was so embarrassed when he realized it wasn't Fred that he asked Sirius to obliviate the memory for him. Tonks felt so guilty about tricking Harry after that she'd asked him to do the same. Only Sirius and I knew it had happened."</p><p>"Dear God," Tony said, removing the gauntlets. "That's more about him than I ever wanted to know."</p><p>"Oh shut up. We've all caught you doing worse at some point. I'm sure Pepper's got plenty of stories from your playboy years. Now lets get this man upstairs, cleaned up, and put into a bed so I can get back to base and check in with Miss Hill."</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Hermione got Sirius cleaned up, in fresh clothes, and put to bed. It took some effort, but she forced a high dose of Dreamless Sleep down his throat. After a THAT was dealt with, Tony hauled her into the his home office where Pepper was waiting with fresh coffee for the three of them.</p><p>"What's this about dad and Cap going missing?"</p><p>"You know as much as I do at this point, which isn't much."</p><p>"So tell me what you DO know."</p><p>So she did. And Pepper had to agree, it wasn't much. Though... it was odd that they would both disappear in the middle of the night... Unless... "Oh God! They're sleeping together!" Pepper blurted out when the realization hit her. Then she promptly covered her mouth afterwards. She really hadn't meant to say that out loud. Especially not in front of Tony given his love-hate relationship with the idea of Captain America before he ever met the man himself.</p><p>Tony choked on his coffee.</p><p>Hermione did a piss poor job of hiding her guilt of knowing before they did by offering to go make more coffee even though they didn't need to make more.</p><p>Tony ended up returning to his workshop, instructing FRIDAY not to bother him for quite some time.</p><p>Hermione left only to return a few hours later with an overnight bag on one shoulder and an old fashioned steamer trunk. "Colonel Rhodes and Miss Hill are in charge until Harry and Steve are found. I've appointed my assistant as head of medical at the base until we get the situation here sorted out. MACUSA has offered their help with both situations should it be needed. The Department of Mysteries is also lending a couple of Unspeakables to investigate their disappearance."</p><p>And with that, she chose a guest room and made herself right at home for the foreseeable future.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Tony rarely came out of his workshop for three days.</p><p>Sirius Black had woken up only to be jabbed with needles, poked at with a wand, and have more potions shoved down his throat after a shave and a haircut.</p><p>But after three days, Tony finally emerged from his workshop.</p><p>Circles under his eyes, though the cot in the corner of the shop looked well used.</p><p>There were three new Iron Man armours in cases lining the walls. There were five restored motorcycles, and a sixth partially broken down before Tony finally had reached a point where he didn't want to punch something.</p><p>He was still angry. But he had put most of his anger into working with his hands. Breaking things apart and putting them back together, just as he'd taken to doing when he was younger and Howard had a good long drunken shout at him to accompany the backhand he was often given for being a smart-ass.</p><p>"Any news on the star spangled jackass and dad?" he had asked tiredly when he surprised the two women by showing up for dinner.</p><p>"Nothing, sorry."</p><p>"And the... house guest?"</p><p>"Sleeping again. There's an unspeakable that wants to come have a look at where he appeared. Apparently he's not the only one."</p><p>"Tony," Pepper started, but Tony shook his head, grabbed the bottle of wine on the table between the two women and poured himself a glass.</p><p>"Nope. Not having that conversation. When they're found, let me know," Tony said, downing his glass and pouring another.</p><p>Pepper caught Hermione's eye and the two shared a worried look before letting that particular subject drop. For now.</p><p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p><p>Pepper was at the office when the Unspeakable, a woman going by the name Feldspar, came to the house to examine where Sirius had appeared out of thin air. She'd cast a few spells, was surprised that nothing in the workshop blew up when she did, and then wrote out a report before rolling the parchment up and tucking it into her robes. "I'd like to examine the subject next."</p><p>"Of course. This way," Hermione had said, leading the woman to the guest room where Sirius made his home currently.</p><p>"Why is there an angry house elf sitting in the corner glaring at him?" the woman had asked when she first entered the room. Sirius looked up from the book he was reading on the bed when they'd come in.</p><p>"A what?"</p><p>"A house elf. Right there. Glaring at him like he'd done some personal injustice."</p><p>"I don't see-" Sirius began.</p><p>Hermione sighed. Of course... of COURSE when Harry had disappeared the damn thing would come straight to Tony's. And hide from him. He was, after all, bound to Harry and with Harry gone, to his son and heir. "Ah. He's... probably just angry that his former master didn't have the decency to stay dead."</p><p>"And his current master?"</p><p>"Mr. Potter's given instructions to his elf to help keep an eye on his friends and family in the event he can't be reached. He's probably here to make sure Sirius doesn't cause trouble for Mr. Stark."</p><p>The woman hummed, and the house elf glared at her from where he stood in the corner before hissing at Hermione and popping away.</p><p>"That old bastard's still alive then?"</p><p>"I hope Mr. Potter has his paperwork in order. I will have to report the elf-"</p><p>"I'm well aware of the MACUSA stance on house elf ownership, Unspeakable Feldspar. I helped write the bloody amendments myself. However Mr. Potter's ownership of the elf is exempt under the special circumstances clause. Without an owner, that particular elf becomes violent and feral. The paperwork is in order." Her voice was firm and brokered no argument. "Now, you are here to examine the miraculous resurrection of Sirius Black. Do your job or leave and I'll file a formal complaint with the UNMSS."</p><p>The woman narrowed her eyes, then pulled out her wand and got to work.</p><p>FRIDAY reported everything that went on in the room back to Tony of course.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Year Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry had tried to find the Ancient One.</p>
<p>He really had.</p>
<p>He'd gone to the New York Sanctum.</p>
<p>And resoundly got his ass beat before he could explain why he was even there.</p>
<p>He tried the London Sanctum but found himself continuously transported elsewhere every time he tried to knock on the damn front door.</p>
<p>He stood outside the Hong Kong Sanctum, after he had to find the bloody thing, and stood outside shouting for a few hours about how if he didn't get to see the Ancient One he was going to find his way to Kamar-Taj itself and shove his basilisk hide boot so far up the Ancient One's arse she'd be tasting leather for weeks.</p>
<p>This, of course, landed him in the uncomfortable position of getting killed and waking up underwater. Which was followed promptly by drowning.</p>
<p>By the time he made his way back to his flat in London that he shared with Steve, Harry was... annoyed. Not angry exactly, but annoyed.</p>
<p>He supposed this was his own karma coming back to kick him while he was down. But damn it, his own universe's Sorcerer Supreme was... well.... he was such an easy mark for pranks. Even Wong had agreed.</p>
<p>Steve had told him, time and time again, that the sorcerers might be different in this world than their own. That the Ancient One might even be someone else entirely.</p>
<p>Harry had agreed to let it rest, for now, and look into other methods of getting home without having to jump through the Veil again.</p>
<p>Library after library. Country after country.</p>
<p>No answers could be found. No one knew what the Veil was. Death, the feral bastard, wasn't willing to speak to him. Only show up, glower in that strange way this world's Death would do, hiss at him like an angry cat, and then ignore him until he sent it away.</p>
<p>Amid all their searching and research, they still had a job to do in return for the identities and lives that were made for them to fit into this world. And they had just wrapped up another interview of yet another dark arts relic dealer while on the case of a black magic supply smuggling ring. "What if..." Steve had as they left the shop while Harry discretely signalled for the waiting agents to swarm in after they were clear. "What about Asgard?"</p>
<p>"Asgard?"</p>
<p>"Think about it, Harry. This world has legends about Thor and Loki and the rest. Even the non magical people just like back home," he explained against a backdrop of WARD agents kicking the door they just left through in like it was absolutely normal for a sting operation to go down nearby. "Which means a couple of the Asgardians had to have come to Earth at some point."</p>
<p>Harry stopped and stared at him like he'd grown a second head. "Are you serious?" Then, he laughed. "Assuming Thor's people could help us, they won't make contact with Earth again for another... forty to fifty years! Assuming, also, that things for Thor and Loki are entirely independent of whatever changes take place here on Earth!"</p>
<p>"It's better than your plan to continually piss off whoever the current Sorcerer Supreme is. What the hell do you think that'll accomplish?"</p>
<p>Harry shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe if I annoy 'em off enough they might send us home just to be rid of us?"</p>
<p>It was something they both would be pondering as they filled out paperwork later that day before retiring home for the night.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>It was a rare period of nothing. No assignments. No mysteries. No new leads on research.</p>
<p>Just a whole lot of nothing.</p>
<p>And Harry was bored out of his fucking mind.</p>
<p>Not that Steve was much better off. Since waking up in the 21st century he'd practically been charging forward non-stop, so this was like a mini-vacation of sorts. Sure, they had jobs to do from time to time but... Steve was a little grateful for the stretches in-between. If he were completely honest with himself, he needed the break. Since ditching the USO show and rescuing Bucky and the other Commandos, he hadn't been able to stop and breathe. From one war to the next.</p>
<p>That said, he was still bored. And while he rather enjoyed pinning Harry to the mattress and hearing him make all those wonderful noises, crying out his name in the same breath as the ever revered Merlin himself... there was only so much sex a person can have in a day.</p>
<p>Which is why they were standing in Diagon Alley, a money pouch in one hand and Hogwarts texts books in a bag in the other.</p>
<p>"Are you sure about this? Just because I could-"</p>
<p>"Even if you're just barely a wizard now, you've got magic. Even if you never properly learn how to use it, you could at least train it to do simple parlour tricks. It could save a life."</p>
<p>"Are you sure I really need a-"</p>
<p>"At least to start. Plus, I need a backup anyway. The old Elder one's great and all, but it's overpowered. Hell, look what it did to the protection spells I put on YOU."</p>
<p>Steve thought it over for a moment before nodding. "True. There is that," he said as he moved forward to the door of the shop, opening it and letting Harry pass through before him.</p>
<p>"Just a moment! Just a moment!" came a voice from the back of the deceptively large shop. Stacks of long, thin boxes were piled high all over and covering nearly every surface.</p>
<p>Harry, having kept the scruffy look and kept his old scar hidden to prevent people from connecting him with this world's Harry Potter, was looking over a window display that proclaimed to be the actual wand of Rowena Ravenclaw when the old man had emerged from behind a carefully tilting stack of boxes. "Ah, what can I do for you gentlemen today?"</p>
<p>"My big blond friend needs a wand," Harry piped up without turning around. "It's his first one."</p>
<p>"Well... you've come to the right place. Better late than never. Now then lets see... lets see..." and so Steve experienced his first ever wand fitting. It was odd and very little like what Harry had told him. A tape measure was floating around him taking measurements like a tailor before fluttering away and the old man started pulling box after box from the shelves around the shop.</p>
<p>Harry had eventually joined Steve at the counter, watching in fascination as wand after wand had a different reaction to the super soldier. One of them starting to smoke in his hand before it was yanked away and tossed over Ollivander's shoulder.</p>
<p>"Hrm..... Perhaps....." he hummed before turning his attention to Harry and eyeing him up and down. "Now this is quite an odd occurrence... Holly and phoenix feather. Eleven inches. I've only ever made one of those and yet here you are. While I know you're not the one I sold it to."</p>
<p>"You did. Just... a different you sold it to a different me. And unfortunately it can't be fixed this time."</p>
<p>Ollivander looked from Harry to Steve, then back again and grinned. "I see... I see. Of course. Wait here. I need to make a floo call."</p>
<p>The old man rushed out of sight through a doorway. Harry leaned forward to prop himself up on the counter with both elbows, his chin resting on the palm of one hand while the other hand fiddled with a thin strip of leather from a wand holster display. Steve turned to lean back against the counter, hands in his pockets as he looked out over the haphazard organization of the shop's wares. "What do you think?"</p>
<p>"I think," Harry started, fiddling with the buckle on the strap now. "That because you got your magic from me, and because I was a very tricky customer to begin with, you're going to be even trickier to outfit with a wand."</p>
<p>"He didn't even bother letting you try any."</p>
<p>Harry laughed. "That's because the last time I was here, well... the other me I suppose, not a single wand in the place worked except the one I ended up with. Letting me try them all again is a lost cause."</p>
<p>Steve smiled, watching Harry from the corner of his eye before turning his attention back to the people passing by the windows to the street. "Is there anywhere else we can go if we can't get one here?"</p>
<p>"There's a custom place down on Knockturn, but I don't really trust them. And I suppose Americans have to get theirs from somewhere, too. There's an Ollivander's branch up in Hogsmede, too that we could try." Harry shrugged and started fiddling with a bit of cloth from a wand polishing kit display now. "This was just the closest one to the flat to be honest."</p>
<p>Eventually old Mr. Ollivander came back from the back room with another man in tow. Each man had a box under his arm. "Ah, good. You're still here. This is my business partner from Hogsmede, Mr. Riley. Mr. Riley took over from my cousin last year."</p>
<p>Harry stood up straighter as Steve turned back around to face them. "Nice to meet you," Steve said, offering his hand to the new man. Mr. Riley shook it but his smile quickly faded as he turned to Harry, and offered his own hand. "May I?"</p>
<p>"What?"</p>
<p>"Shake your hand Mr. Potter. It'll help me get a feel for your magic and help find the right fit for you both."</p>
<p>Harry shrugged and shook his hand. Mr. Riley's frown softened. "Ah, I see the problem now. You were right to call me Garrick. Please, set that box on the counter."</p>
<p>The two superheroes watched as the wand-makers sorted through the boxes, quietly whispering between them before they agreed on something. Four wands were set out before the two men. Clearly they were sets. "Mr. Potter, please, choose a wand," Mr. Ollivander said, indicating one set.</p>
<p>He glanced at Steve who looked just as lost as he was. He picked it up, and then the other wand was picked up and offered to Steve. "At the same time, both of you are to move the wand like so, and say very clearly Lumos."</p>
<p>Harry shrugged. "On three then I suppose," he said, and let Steve do the count.</p>
<p>Both wands lit up, only to get too bright and explode.</p>
<p>The second set were pushed forward. "This time, I think, Mr...."</p>
<p>"Steve," the soldier said. "Just Steve."</p>
<p>"Right. Just Steve. You choose first this time."</p>
<p>And he did. The second wand was offered to Harry, who took it and again, on the count of three, they did the spell. This time, while the light of the lumos spell was still rather... blinding, it didn't cause the wands to explode in their hands.</p>
<p>Harry cancelled the spell first, then put his hand on Steve's arm and guided him through the quick movement since he didn't see Harry do it first, with the soldier copying the word he heard Harry utter seconds before.</p>
<p>"Well, I believe we've found you two some wands," Mr. Ollivander said, clapping his hands quite happily. "I'll just ring these up. Will you be wanting holsters?" "One for Steve please. I've already got two of my own."</p>
<p>Ollivander nodded and hurried off to the back while Mr. Riley hurriedly began scribbling some notes for further research. "This is.... The pair of you.... This is absolutely amazing! I've never seen the like!"</p>
<p>"Brother wands?" Harry asked casually, then shrugged when Steve gave him a look. "What? It's not my first time dealing with brother wands. Snake face's wand had the same core as mine."</p>
<p>"These aren't just brother wands, Mr... Potter was it?"</p>
<p>"Just Harry," he snapped quickly. "And you'll forget the surname if you know what's good for you."</p>
<p>Mr. Riley nodded as he continued to scribble and scratch his quill on the parchment. "But you're right, Mr. Harry. These ARE brother wands, of a sort. Traditionally brother wands have the same core," he continued for Steve's benefit. "But these and the first two we had you try were made using not only cores from the same animal given at the same time, but wood blanks from the same cutting of the same tree. These are twin wands. They were made just for the challenge, but to find owners for them? Two who's magic are so compatible... and to have it be your first wand as well, Mr. Steve! It's incredible! Simply incredible!"</p>
<p>They were asked to exchange wands and to do the spell a second time. And much to their surprise, it worked just as well the second time as it had the first. "This is, without a doubt, my life's greatest achievement. I will never be able replicate this..." Mr. Riley said as he finished taking his notes. He flipped through his book and stopped on a page, pulling out a piece of parchment and casting the replication spell on the words in his journal. "Here. This is the information on the wands from when I created them. Mr. Steve, your wand is fourteen inches. Mr. Harry, yours is 11 and 3/4 inches. Both wands are made from a cutting of the same branch of the same tamarack tree. It's a type of larch found in North America. Usually they are found in swamps and bogs, but that particular tree was found at the edge of the tundra, just inside the arctic tree line."</p>
<p>The wandmaker was so excited about the wands he didn't see the wince from the taller blond man in front of him or the thoughtful frown on the scruffy shorter man as he continued. "The cores are from the same Curupira, a dwarf-like creature found in Brazil. All the information is there for you to read at your leisure gentlemen," he said. Soon after, Mr. Ollivander had returned with bills of sale, and Steve was shown how to wear and use the wand holster that was purchased with his.</p>
<p>The two men left the wand shop with more questions than they had walked in with. But there was one thing Harry was certain of... "Next time my wand is busted up, I'll skip Ollivander's and just go make one my damn self."</p>
<p>"You wouldn't even know where to start," Steve laughed as he played with his wand holster, watching as when he bent his wrist back and forth the wand would peek out just a little, then go back into it's impossibly tiny little pocket.</p>
<p>Harry muttered under his breath before grabbing his free wrist and dragging him towards the Leaky Cauldron. "I'm hungry and after all of that, YOU are paying."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Harry's limited experience in teaching did not prepare him for this.</p>
<p>Not for the first time did he curse the Dr. Erskine and his miraculous serum.</p>
<p>And then he had to remember that he brought it on himself, really, by not following protocol correctly the first time and wiping the man's memory of his presence entirely from his trip to the past.</p>
<p>"For the last time, Steven," Harry groaned. "I can't teach you how to apparate when you've only been learning magic for a month."</p>
<p>"When are you going to teach me something I can actually use in a fight?"</p>
<p>Harry let his head drop forward with a loud crack against their table. He really hoped they got an assignment again sometime really soon.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>They found his limit.</p>
<p>Second year level spells were it.</p>
<p>But that didn't stop Steve from reading up on the theory every chance he had. They'd gone back to WARD for various check ups and to be poked at and prodded, and to check how much more of his magic Steve had basically absorbed. It wasn't much, because Harry hadn't been angry enough to need to bleed it off as often as back home. Though their situation was truly frustrating.</p>
<p>A year and eight months after their arrival, give or take a week, Steve came home from a morning jog to find an old man with a long, wispy beard sitting at their table with fragrant tea. "Captain Rogers," the man said, smiling.</p>
<p>Steve took a step back towards the open doorway of the kitchen he'd just passed through, hoping that if he willed it hard enough, his shield would come to him from it's current place by the front door.</p>
<p>The man shook his head. "There's no need for that, Captain Rogers. I did not come here to fight you. Your friend has been trying to get my attention. Now he has it."</p>
<p>"You're a sorcerer?"</p>
<p>"THE Sorcerer. For now."</p>
<p>"Harry's not home."</p>
<p>"I did not come to talk to Harry. I came to talk to you." And the man calmly took a sip of his tea. "You and I both know he is more likely to lash out after what I have to say than he is to listen to reason. You, however, can weather such a raging storm with ease. Come. Sit. You will be far more comfortable."</p>
<p>It was a surreal morning in their flat for Steve. Sitting and having tea with a man who walked the streets of the ancient world. A man who watched as the first stones were put down into the foundations of what would become the Great Wall of China. A man who had watched civilizations rise and fall only to be forgotten and rediscovered again.</p>
<p>He sat and he listened, and the more he listened, the more he knew this man was right. Harry wouldn't be happy to hear what he had to say. But... it wasn't hopeless. They would be able to get home. Just... not as quickly as they wanted to. And there were still a few certain tasks that needed to be completed... as a consequence of their interference certain events that needed to happen now couldn't. Which left the future to be very unstable.</p>
<p>One piece of information the Ancient One had imparted to him had him bothered... Without the war that Harry and he had prevented, there would be no Tony Stark.</p>
<p>And without Tony Stark the world, apparently, was in grave danger.</p>
<p>But before he had a chance to bring up his strange morning to Harry, the man himself burst through the door of their flat, agitated and frantic.</p>
<p>"Steven! Steve!" Harry called out seconds after he had thrown the front door open, then slammed it closed again behind him.</p>
<p>"Kitchen!" he called back, clearing away the cups and teapot. When he looked up to see the wizard, his hair wild and crazy and his green eyes tired, he knew something wasn't right. "Are you okay? You look-"</p>
<p>"WARD Aurors went to arrest Albus Dumbledore last night. He managed to escape. Henry's been kidnapped, Snape's dead in his cell, and Peter Pettigrew was broken out of Azkaban. It's been one hell of a morning! Now suit up!"</p>
<p>"We're too close to the case. You sure you-"</p>
<p>"Doesn't matter. The parents all but demanded you and me. Now lets go. We've got a phoenix to trap."</p>
<p>Steve wouldn't get the chance to tell Harry the message he was meant to give him for quite a while.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>On the list of questions Steve never once asked, how to kill a phoenix was right up there.</p>
<p>But boy did he find out. "Lethal injection," he said, frowning as Harry, who's pants were still partly on fire and his hair smoking a bit, stood and brushed the feathers and ash off his clothes.</p>
<p>"Sometimes the muggle ways are the best ways." Harry shrugged. "I'll get it rendered down and we can use the bones to find out where he's hiding."</p>
<p>"Can't you, y'know, use your blood? We're looking for YOU after all."</p>
<p>Harry shook his head as he searched through his pouch on his hip, trying to find something to put the now dead bird into. "Not since he had his blood scrubbed of the tears and venom. Entirely different make-up now. And as you saw, scrying for him didn't work. Just kept pointing to me. And- Ah, here we are," he said as he pulled out a cigar box. Steve picked up the dead bird as Harry enlarged his box.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Waste not, want not. Growing up during the era he did, Steve understood that better than most in the modern day. Even if the modern day at the moment was the late 1960s.</p>
<p>Though it seemed magicals were especially keen on this concept if they could make a little coin on the side as well. He had chosen to be out and about, gathering supplies Harry would need rather than stay for the rendering down of the mythical bird on their kitchen table.</p>
<p>When he'd come back, Harry had everything in jars and sacks. With a pile of bones off to the side. It was strangely efficient looking with the paper labels and a list of prices written out in the familiar chicken-scratch on ruled paper. "I.... got your smelly weeds," Steve had said when Harry hadn't even acknowledged his presence, absorbed as he was in the labelling of his phoenix parts.</p>
<p>"I have here nearly a billion dollars worth of product. And that's not even counting what I could get on the black market."</p>
<p>"You are NOT selling this on the black market!"</p>
<p>"Of course not! I'm giving it all away for free. Just to spite people. Well, except the feathers. And the tear ducts. They're coming home with us."</p>
<p>"That's disgusting."</p>
<p>Harry shrugged. "Figured I could use the feathers for gifts and the tear ducts for Hermione's research on my blood. Now set that over there on the counter by the stove. I'll get to work on the potion for the bone bleaching tonight."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Harry stood at the table, the freshly rendered, freshly bleached and prepared bones arranged on the table. With his resurrection stone held tightly in one hand, his cloak on his shoulders and the elder wand grasped firmly in his other hand. This was NOT a power he liked to draw on, and had not attempted to do so since their arrival because Death just.... Death just didn't want to cooperate.</p>
<p>But now.... Now Harry was very glad that Steve had gone to bed and left him to work his dark magic alone. This was NOT something he liked to show people. And most definitely was NOT something he wanted to share with the man if he could help it.</p>
<p>Part way through his chanting, the bones began to move. To coalesce into a skeleton. A mockery of life as black wisps of magic filled the space where lungs and a heart should have been. As green light filled the empty, sightless eye sockets. The same, deadly green as his own two eyes. As his mother's eyes. The beak opened with a grinding sound again and again before a raspy, angry voice spoke. "False Master... Liar.... Deceiver..."</p>
<p>"Enough of that now. I know my Hallows don't belong here. And I'm trying desperately to get home, but right now that doesn't matter. I need your help."</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"Not even to save someone that could be your master in this world?"</p>
<p>"It is not his time to come."</p>
<p>"But he will be your master eventually?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"If not him, then who? I could help you, if only you would help me?"</p>
<p>The strange bird, the physical body Death had accepted as an offering to it, deemed worthy enough to actually exchange words and parley with Harry rather than hiss, growl, and leave... tilted its head. "The one that comes after."</p>
<p>Harry pondered this a moment, frowning. "Explain."</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>He stood, adjusting his grip on the elder wand a moment before trying a different approach. "Did my interference upset the balance of life and death here?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"Did someone die who was not meant to die?"</p>
<p>"No."</p>
<p>"Then someone lived who was not meant to live?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"Name them and I will send them to you and correct what I have done."</p>
<p>The avian skeleton threw its head back and laughed. It was a wicked sound that put fear into Harry's heart to hear it. Then, the laughter was cut off by coughing. "I will help you, False Master," it said. "But know this. The Potter boy must seize the wand. But his Moon must claim the rock."</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"The Potter boy is not my master," the skeleton said simply in it's harsh, raspy voice. "I wait for the one who comes after. The bones... you will keep. And gift them before you depart this world as a tribute to my Master. He will have need of them when his ascension comes."</p>
<p>And with that, the skeleton collapsed in on itself. The dark magic Harry had called forth dissipated and left a metallic tang to the air as Death left the London flat. The immortal wizard stood staring at the pile of bones in deep thought, slotting the things he had learned. He did not get a name, but when he recalled the brief conversation with Death... he did not need to hear it. The clues were there the entire time. Wherever Henry was, he was with Albus Dumbledore. Albus had covered his tracks, but not well enough it seemed.</p>
<p>Harry smiled as he cleaned up the mess from his summoning. The bones were put into a large Tupperware container, a label slapped on it and the bones put up on a shelf in the cabinet for later. As he cleaned, a plan began to form. He didn't like it, but based on the clues... it seemed the only way...</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Luna Lovegood was not surprised to open the front door of her and her father's new home in Eerie, Indiana and find the two men standing there with a gift basket. "Hello, Miss Lovegood," Steve said. "Is your father home?"</p>
<p>She shook her head with a bright smile. "No. He's stepped out to the office. It's so strange not having the printing press in our basement," she said, moving aside to invite the two men inside. She admired the basket, finding the odd assortment of things in it just to her liking. "I suppose you're here about Harry Potter going missing."</p>
<p>"Yes, actually," Steve said. "My partner says you're the best Seer he's ever met."</p>
<p>"He's biased," she said, waving them to follow her to the kitchen of the small home. When the two men came into the room they found three place settings and a carafe of rather strong looking coffee sitting out for them. "My bag is already packed. I told daddy not to expect me home for two months."</p>
<p>Steve blinked at that, following Harry's lead and sitting at the table. Luna put the basket at the end of it before joining them. "He's going to need a friendly face when we find him and get him home."</p>
<p>Harry shook his head as he sipped his coffee. "Luna, you know you can't come with us. It's too dangerous."</p>
<p>She levelled him with a hard stare. "You wouldn't have come to me if you didn't need my help. And I will help you not because I have to, but because I WANT to."</p>
<p>"Why? don't even know him?"</p>
<p>She tilted her head as her eyes took on a far and away quality. "I have my reasons, Mr. Grim. Now, drink up. It's going to be a very long trip."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Steve and Harry argued, frequently, over Luna's safety. Steve didn't want her out in the field working with them. She was too young. Still a kid herself. Harry didn't either, and he wholeheartedly agreed with him that she was too young. But at the same time, he knew there was no one better at tracking the impossible, invisible things of the world. Harry also knew... Death had said Luna must claim the rock. Which meant the resurrection stone was in play along with the cloak and the wand. How it had been taken from the goblins was anyone's guess, but the fact was that it had been taken and was now held by Dumbledore. All three were within his grasp and it was too dangerous to leave him alone with them.</p>
<p>In the end WARD had signed off on her participation once they learned she was a true Seer but had made it clear she was a civilian and not to take part in any fighting that may happen.</p>
<p>Well... They tried to keep her out of it at least.</p>
<p>It got even more perilous when they found themselves hot on the trail of Albus Dumbledore two weeks after recruiting Luna and came face to face with imperiused Order members hell-bent on killing the three of them.</p>
<p>Now though, in the aftermath of that disaster, Luna staggered out of the tent they were using as a mobile base, using a transfigured walking stick to keep herself upright as she came out to the fire where Steve and Harry sat. "I think she'll be fine now... but I don't think she'll ever want to go back to the magical world after this."</p>
<p>"I'm sorry..." Steve said as he handed her a cup of fresh water. "I know she was a friend. To both of you."</p>
<p>"It's better this way, I think. She never really recovered from the events of our first year. And it's cured her of her obsession with Harry Potter at least." Luna sat quietly and drank her water as the two men silently communicated between them. Harry eventually nodded and stood. "Steve, will you write up the letter. I'll... deal with Ginny. See if I can get anything more from her before putting her to sleep." Harry stopped at the flap for a moment, looking over his shoulder. "Ron once told me about an uncle or a cousin of the family who was a squib. He became an accountant. In your letter, ask about a man from the Prewitt and Weasley families who might fit this description. Being family he might take her in and help her adjust to her new life.</p>
<p>Hours later, after Luna had accepted the sleeping draught Harry had offered, and Ginny No-Name was resting peacefully on the spare cot, her injuries stable from her ordeal at the hands of Albus in the basement of Wool's Orphanage, Harry crawled into bed with Steve and cried.</p>
<p>He wouldn't talk about it. He wouldn't explain why he felt the way he did. Why Ginny's torture had affected him so, nor the loss of her magic as a result. But Steve didn't care. He held the wizard firmly in his arms and stoked his hair. He laughed a bit when Harry said he needed a bath, and told him his hair was getting greasy in return.</p>
<p>The next day, Harry took Ginny No-Name to WARD HQ, updated them about the case, and returned to the tent with new orders. Orders he hadn't been surprised to hear. "This is no longer a capture and rescue mission," Harry had said as he packed his pouch full of potions and magical weapons. "We rescue the boy and we eliminate the threat by any means available."</p>
<p>Steve frowned. "It's a kill mission?"</p>
<p>He was met by a cold green stare. "Yes. Ginny's memories yielded far more information than she was consciously able to give verbally." Harry took a deep breath and shuddered at the memory of what he saw in the pensieve.</p>
<p>"What aren't you telling me, Harry?"</p>
<p>He shook his head and walked away to finish packing.</p>
<p>He turned then to Luna, who was standing between the tent poles that guarded her small private room. "Your world is not the same as mine, Captain," she said. "But some things, unfortunately, do mirror one another." Her words were spoken with a strange, otherworldly quality to them.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"They won't stay down!" he shouted, catching the shield just in time to smash another of the half-rotted corpses as it climbed the tower of stone and bones upon which he and the teenage girl were currently trapped.</p>
<p>"Fire!" she shouted, using her wand to light another one that came too close. "They'll only die when set on fire!"</p>
<p>"And how the hell am I supposed to do that?!"</p>
<p>"Well, you're a wizard aren't you Captain?!"</p>
<p>"Barely!"</p>
<p>She huffed under her breath and fired off another spell. Then, she turned, tapping his shield with her wand and speaking in Latin. "I hope that works," she said as he threw the shield again to clear the closest monsters to the base of the stone and bone pile.</p>
<p>"I hope Harry's doing better than we are!"</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Harry was, in fact, not doing much better than they were.</p>
<p>In fact, he was stuck running a labyrinth.</p>
<p>The defences of Nurmengard were not what any of them expected them to be.</p>
<p>Then again, knowing Dumbledore the way that he did, he couldn't really have been all that surprised at where he'd made his base. It was built to be the ultimate fortress with currently one resident. Impossible to break out of, but also impossible to break into uninvited.</p>
<p>Until now.... he hoped.</p>
<p>Harry stopped to catch his breath in an alcove, only to shout in surprise when he was met with the chittering of an all too familiar over-large magical arachnid...</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Hours they spent, working their way through the perils of Nurmengard's defences when finally they made it out the other side of the trials the pair of them had been pitted against. All because Harry had run off from the path to scout ahead for weak points in the wards.</p>
<p>They tumbled with Luna on top of him out of the stonework, finding they were on the other side of the wards and the only difference from when they were pulled into them and when they were shot back out was a matter of.... "seven feet! We moved all of SEVEN FEET!" came a shout from about five yards away from them.</p>
<p>"SEVEN FUCKING FEET!"</p>
<p>"Harry?!" Steve called from where he still lay in the dirt, Luna holding his shield and looking at it before standing up with a smile.</p>
<p>"That was rather exciting," she said, then looked towards the irate wizard who parts of his clothes were still on fire. "I'll have to write about the creative uses of wizard-space for the Quibbler when I get home."</p>
<p>"If you get home," Harry muttered.</p>
<p>"WHEN," she insisted before making her way imperiously towards the towering prison fortress that now stood before them.</p>
<p>Harry was putting himself out before he offered his hand to Steve. Steve was still staring after Luna as she wandered off with his shield as if expecting the two men to just follow her.</p>
<p>"She's.... strange."</p>
<p>Harry shrugged as he helped Steve get to his feet. "All part of her charm," he said as they had to jog to catch up to the young Seer.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>There was silence outside the fortress. Not even birdsong in the air.</p>
<p>After making a quick study of the old blueprints they'd managed to retrieve from an old house in Godric's Hollow – one that Harry recalled had belonged to Bathilda Bagshot – they knew whatever traps and devices were in the fortress were likely beefed up as much as possible over the years to keep the man who built the place imprisoned.</p>
<p>"And to keep me out," Harry had added when Luna pointed out the differences between the defences on the map and what they'd already gone through with the wards. "Whatever he's got that's keeping the kid hidden, keeping him trapped, is likely strong enough to keep me at bay."</p>
<p>"Why?" Steve asked.</p>
<p>"Because he knows who he really is. He knows he is Harry Potter from a place far beyond this one. A place where his own plans succeeded and Harry became strong enough to defeat the Dark Lord Voldemort," she explained. "But also because he knows Harry has a power he's coveted for over a century. And if he could do it, then his younger self has the potential to be just as powerful. It makes sense to keep him under protections that strong."</p>
<p>Harry nodded his agreement, and grinned. "But he doesn't know about Steve. You've got magic now, but you're still a muggle first. And you fight like one. We'll use that to our advantage. Most wizards, Albus included, never take into account muggles when they set up their fortifications."</p>
<p>"Grindlewald did," Luna pointed out. "And he built this place."</p>
<p>Harry's eyes were bright. His grin all the more cheeky than usual. Steve could have sworn the bastard was one second away from laughing. "True," he said. "But he never met a pissed off Captain America."</p>
<p>Harry made a quick portkey for Luna out of one of her bottle caps. "The password is 'prongs'. I don't need to tell you when and how to use it. If we get separated... you are not to do something brave. You are not a Gryffindor," he said.</p>
<p>"No... but I am a Thunderbird," she said and skipped ahead of them to look out for the invisible traps.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Traps and imperiused footsoldiers.</p>
<p>They fought almost like death eaters. Almost.</p>
<p>Harry couldn't help but wince when Steve's shield caught Mad Eye in the chest.</p>
<p>They didn't want to kill any of the poor unfortunate people that were caught in the crossfire – unless Harry reliably was able to ID them as enemy combatant and not mind controlled idiots, but it still didn't mean the man didn't feel bad when one of the bravest and most stubborn sons of bitches he'd ever known got taken out by the other bravest and most stubborn son of a bitch he'd ever know.</p>
<p>Luna's unusually strong blasting hex cleared the way for them to progress onward down an alternate route. "This way!" she shouted before the three of them could feel the chill of the dreaded black cloaked monsters that started to make their way from the floors below. Steve brought up the rear, using his shield to block the spells that came their way as they made their retreat. Luna, her wand lit up with a bright Lumos pushed onward, sensing and Seeing seconds into the ever changing futures. Of all the similar ones that changed and melted together or dissipated and faded into unreality, there was one. One that had started with a vision on the steps a school.</p>
<p>One where she Saw a man zipping about the air clad in the colours of Gryffindor but without a broom. A hulking beast and assassins and a thunder god and a round, spinning shield slicing the air. She Saw this future, and she clung to it. Following the threads of Sight towards their goal. Towards the one person, the one man that was the lynchpin of making it all come together.</p>
<p>Of course, Luna didn't tell them this. Only that she could sense where they needed to go. That she could see where the worst attacks would be coming from. After all, she had spent her time with these two men, men from another world but ones she would come to know again here in her own, training her senses. Practising and honing her sight for one, singular purpose.</p>
<p>To save the world.</p>
<p>A flash of blue caught her attention from the gate of an elevator. "There!" she cried out as stone crashed into Steve's shield behind them. "There's how we get up!" They had searched for stairs. For a ladder. For a hole in the ceiling. Anything to get them to the floor above, and this was so far the only way they had found.</p>
<p>"Hold!" she cried, then counted in her head. And then, a second flash of blue. "It's electrified. Quick! Give me a rubber duck!"</p>
<p>"A rubber duck?!" Steve exclaimed, doing his best to protect their backs with his magically enhanced shield. "What the hell good is a rubber duck going to do?!"</p>
<p>Luna shook her head as Harry searched in his bag and found.... "I'll be damned...." he said, pulling out one rubber duck. Luna grinned. "Duplicate it. We need five more. Make them big enough for feet."</p>
<p>Harry frowned, then got to work as Steve shouted in pain when a cutting curse slipped by and nicked his shoulder. "Any time now guys!" he shouted at them.</p>
<p>Harry made five more, enlarged them, and cut holes. "You'd better be right about this, Luna."</p>
<p>She shoved her feet into the two smallest ones as Harry did the same before pulling her wand and casting a Protego shield. Harry backed it up as Steve clumsily put rubber ducks on his feet. "In! In! In!" she shouted as their shield fell. The three jumped into the electrified elevator, unaffected by the power coursing through it. One poor soul reached out after them as the grate closed and-</p>
<p>"And that," Harry said as the poor bastard was electrocuted. "Is the function of a rubber duck."</p>
<p>Luna laughed. Steve didn't get it. And Harry shook his head as he reached into his pouch to grab potions. "You... you had to have been there," he said, offering them to his lover and their friend. "Drink up. This is likely the only reprieve we're to get for a while."</p>
<p>"It is," Luna confirmed. "This will bypass the rest of the traps and take us one floor below where Henry is being held. Your magic will be useless there, as only the headmaster and the man who built the fortress can use magic in the top two floors."</p>
<p>"You still have your portkey I gave you?"</p>
<p>"Yes."</p>
<p>"We'll distract Dumbledore. You get the boy and you run. Run as far as you have to for that portkey to work, you understand me Luna?"</p>
<p>She nodded, her eyes clouding over for just a moment... a moment where she saw the last two roads diverge. One towards hope and one towards ruin. "Use the sword to take off the arm after Henry has taken his wand. Otherwise all is lost." And then the moment was passed.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>When the elevator doors opened, they had little time to remove the rubber ducks from their feet. Steve threw his shield as Harry drew his sword. Each covering for the other as they removed the only thing between themselves and electrocution moments ago.</p>
<p>"Hallway's clear," Steve called, signalling for Luna and Harry to follow close behind. Luna took the middle while Harry watched their rear. There was one final barrier to the stairs leading up to the floor above. Up to the target. Up... to the boy they came to save once again from a fate worse than death.</p>
<p>"I can't crack these wards," Harry said at last. "Luna? Any ideas?"</p>
<p>"One... And it's not pretty. We won't have much time once the wards are breached." And without warning, she took the sword from Harry's hand and shoved him forward. The man screamed, howling in pain as the powerful wards ripped through him. Steve came forward to pull him back, but Luna stopped him. The man's skin started to bubble with large blisters before one burst on his hand.</p>
<p>"Smear it on the wall! There! Over the runes!"</p>
<p>Barely able to hear her, Harry forced his eyes open and willed himself to move. Every twitch, every little movement was like thousands of hot knives cutting through him. He tried desperately to put the pain out of his mind, but he could not. It felt worse than anything he had ever experienced.... and he died on a regular basis.</p>
<p>Finally, a bloody hand touched the wall, right over the runes that powered the wards and he smeared his blood against it, obscuring them. But more than that... the stones where his blood was smeared began to hiss and smoke. Began to bubble and char and melt away.</p>
<p>The wards released him and Luna moved forward to snatch his pouch before he could hit the ground. It was tossed to Steve, who opened it for her and felt around for bottles. The shapes of different potions had become familiar to him by now in their adventures, and he easily found a general purpose healing potion. He handed it to Luna, who quickly knelt to administer it. Harry went through two with an additional blood replenisher before they were able to move on.</p>
<p>"Walk it off," Steve said.</p>
<p>"I'm not dead yet," Harry groaned as he pounded down one final potion, throwing the bottle aside, uncaring of the shattering glass as he felt the numbness of the pain potion begin to take hold. He could have a proper lie in when this was over. Not a moment before. Until then... push through and walk it off. "Gonna need a reset soon though..."</p>
<p>"Later, at the tent," Steve said as Harry took up his sword again and they pressed on.</p>
<p>The trio didn't spend long at the base of the stairs where the wards had been, and were soon climbing them. Steve at the front, his shield raised to deflect the oncoming spells and attacks they knew would be headed their way the moment they made it to the top. Luna, feeling the oppressive spells that prevented her from casting any herself was in the back this time, unable to fight and defend herself without the use of her wand. Harry took the centre, his sword held tightly. "The moment you see an opening, Luna, you take it. No matter what, we get the kid out of here."</p>
<p>"Right," she said as the door at the top was opened before they reached it.</p>
<p>Steve raised his shield and with a mighty cry the trio burst up and out of the stairway into the chaos that awaited them.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Henry could barely understand what was going on around him now. He could hardly hear and his vision was kept blacked out. At first it was with blindfolds, but then... then he'd been dragged to this place and locked in a dark cell.</p>
<p>He tried to tell anyone that would listen that he wasn't the enemy. He wasn't the bad guy here. He wasn't Voldemort.</p>
<p>The scar in his head was healed.</p>
<p>He didn't have a part of the dark lord anymore.</p>
<p>But they wouldn't listen. The headmaster wouldn't accept it. Refused to see that the prophecy – oh yeah Henry knew all about that now – was fulfilled! Had been ages ago!</p>
<p>He didn't scream anymore. He didn't plead anymore.</p>
<p>They'd magicked his mouth shut when he tried to take a bite out of the filthy old man Dumbledore had brought to his cell. Brought to look him over and try to force the dark lord to come forward from the horcrux that wasn't even there any longer.</p>
<p>When he had refused to open his eyes to let them get into his mind, they'd magicked his eyes shut, too. It hurt, at first, like it did his mouth. Food and water was now spelled directly into his stomach so he didn't starve to death.</p>
<p>There was always a sort of... muffled effect to his hearing. He could tell people were near, but he could never tell what they were saying.</p>
<p>Muffled. Or a buzzing. Always...</p>
<p>But he didn't just silently and blindly accept this treatment. Oh no, his dads – in the short time he'd been with them – had taught him better than that. Just because he had magic didn't mean he shouldn't learn to fight dirty like a no-maj. Pops made sure when he wasn't at school, he took lessons down at the rec centre. His cousin Sarah, too.</p>
<p>Which was why he was now stuck to the wall with sticking charms. He'd fought and he'd scrapped and he'd almost managed to escape. If he'd been able to see, he probably would have seen there were wards on the stairs and found another way down.</p>
<p>He could feel a change in the air. A sense of something important. A thrill of excitement went up his spine he hadn't felt since... well, not since his days at Hogwarts, running alongside Hermione and Ron as they tried to figure out what dastardly plan was going to go down this year. His heart pounded painfully against his chest as the adrenaline was dumped into his blood and rushed through his veins.</p>
<p>And suddenly... he was free. He could hear. He couldn't see, and couldn't speak, but he could hear. And there was shouting and screaming and he could hear the explosive spell-fire nearby and there were hands on him. Gentle and careful and much to small to belong to anyone that had manhandled him since he'd been taken off the street unawares.</p>
<p>"It's alright," a voice said softly. "We're here to save you."</p>
<p>He thought he should know that voice, but he couldn't.... he couldn't quite place it.</p>
<p>Those small, deceptively strong hands pulled him to his feet, ensured he had one hand on whomever they belonged to at all times. She, because the voice was most definitely a girl, ripped something. He could hear it – oh gods it was a wonderful sound even amidst the horrors going on around him just outside his cell – and then felt as something soft was wrapped and tied around his wrist. "I've tied us together," she said, her voice even and soothing even in this nightmare. He clung to it. Clung to the light of hope it provided him now. "Follow my lead, and I'll get you out of here Henry."</p>
<p>He nodded. It was the only thing he COULD do.</p>
<p>She led him, and had to move slowly since he wasn't used to walking much, across his cell and towards the sound of battle. "Whatever happens, just follow me," she said and then... they were out of the cell and into the heat of battle.</p>
<p>He followed her, his saviour – his angel – as she wove and danced down corridors and across rooms, twisting and turning him out of the way of weapons and spells, what few times they came.</p>
<p>"GET THEM!" the familiar voice of his former headmaster shouted and fear gripped him now as he felt her pull him towards her.</p>
<p>"LUNA!" another familiar voice cried out – and it was one of the men who had first rescued him. One of the men who had taken him from the Dursleys of Privet Drive and helped him to heal and recover and escape the abuses he suffered in England and at Hogwarts.</p>
<p>And then... She was gone. There was nothing at the end of the tether. He was blind and lost and he felt the familiar sting of the torture curse rip through his body and he couldn't even scream.</p>
<p>He heard her cry out in pain and followed her voice. Follow her lead, she had said, and she would get him out of this madhouse.</p>
<p>Henry felt the air change, and he ducked as he ran, stumbling in exhaustion and weakness towards her screams. He heard something slice the air above him, and metal clang as something else bounced and sliced the air again and again. Clang. Thud. Spin. Fly. Repeat. He kept low, nearly tumbling over until finally, he charged. Head down, shoulders squared, tackling a warm body to the ground and feeling around with bony hands until, finally, he found a neck and a face. Hands struggled to push him away, but Henry was seized with adrenaline and rage.</p>
<p>This was the man. The man that had told Dumbledore he was still a horcrux. This was the man who was a prisoner here before him. This was a dark lord, and he was always meant to be a weapon to destroy such vile things in the world.</p>
<p>Silently, blindly, he sat on the man who clawed at his skinny arms and wrists and Henry would have snarled as he could as his thumbs dug deep into the soft flesh of that face. Pressing and pressing until he felt the pop and the warmth of blood and fluid over his hands.</p>
<p>An eye, his fury filled mind rationalized, for an eye.</p>
<p>He felt strong hands pull him away, and he kicked at the man they belonged to before turning and headbutting whomever it was in the gut and skittering away towards the sound of the girl who had found him. The girl who had promised to get him out of here.</p>
<p>"Avada-" he heard the old headmaster begin, and he leapt towards it, intending to throw himself in the way but finding that he'd knocked the man over. Frantic, blood slicked hands struggled to grab hold of an arm, searching for the man's wand to prevent him from casting the deadly curse against whomever it was – be it himself or those who came to save him – and then he found it.</p>
<p>Old, claw-like fingers grasped his arm and he ripped the wand from the old headmaster's hand and rolled away with it, clutching it tightly. The old man came for him again, but Henry never felt his violent hands and instead heard the old man's cry of pain.</p>
<p>The chaos stopped.</p>
<p>The cacophony around him was silenced.</p>
<p>Henry lay there, blind and mute, clutching the headmaster's wand for dear life and shaking like a leaf until he felt a familiar, silky material laid upon him, hiding all of him save his head from view.</p>
<p>"Luna," a tired voice, the one he knew belonged to Mr. Steve, said. "Are you... Are you alright?"</p>
<p>"My leg," she said. "And my shoulder," she added. "I can't feel them." A few moments passed as he heard movement around him. The men must have been rounding up survivors, silencing and stunning them. It's what Henry would have done... "Oh.... pretty little bauble," he heard the girl's voice again, and he would have laughed if he could.</p>
<p>Instead he snuggled deeper beneath the cloak and hoped no one noticed him.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Albus Dumbledore died, officially, of serpent's venom poisoning.</p>
<p>Technically... that was true. He could have survived having his arm cut off.</p>
<p>Had the blade not been forged from goblin steel and impregnated with basilisk venom.</p>
<p>Much to many people's surprise, Gellert Grindlewald, whom many assumed already had been killed decades ago, was publicly announced as dead. The official word was heart attack during what would become known in the years to come as the Battle of Nurmengard, a joint MACUSA and WARD operation.</p>
<p>Officially, many who survived were found to be under severely overpowered compulsion charms. Others under the Imperius itself. Though there were some... some who willingly followed the fallen-from-grace Supreme Mugwump.</p>
<p>As for the two agents of WARD, their civilian Seer, and Henry?</p>
<p>Luna Lovegood was awarded the Order of Merlin, First Class as well as given job offers for immediately after she completed her schooling.</p>
<p>The two unnamed WARD agents were mentioned and awarded the same, but their identities could not be revealed and they could not be approached for comment.</p>
<p>Henry Rogers-Barnes was taken to a private WARD clinic in New York where he was reunited with his family and received intense healing and therapy.</p>
<p>He would complete his education in the months to follow with tutors assigned by Ilvermorny, but would not be able to return to the school itself due to his trauma... Something one of his fathers was rather familiar with himself, still suffering PTSD from his time in the army during WW2.</p>
<p>Luna and her father, Xenophilius, were frequent visitors to the Rogers-Barnes household once Henry was finally allowed to return home to his parents.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Steve sat on one of the old folding tables, legs dangling as he read a magazine from the stack of old, out of date ones he'd found by the front counter.</p>
<p>Nearby, Harry was prattling on about something as he sorted through their laundry, picking out socks and complaining that Steve's shirt had turned everything pink when really, they both knew it was Harry's new red wool socks that did it, not Steve's favourite t-shirt.</p>
<p>They were put on forced vacation after the events of Nurmengard, not that Steve minded it much. It meant he could slow down again. Take his time and enjoy the little things this time and world had to offer them. Harry, though, was wound tighter than a spring and just itching for something to do. Some fight to throw himself into. Yesterday it was tracking down the rat that decided to make a nest in their sofa while they'd been gone all that time looking for this world's Harry Potter counterpart.</p>
<p>Today it was their backed up laundry.</p>
<p>Because last week Harry had jumped him while he was doing their laundry at the apartment and, well... being that Harry was very resilient and Steve was super strong... They no longer had a washing machine.</p>
<p>The dryer was sacrificed hours after to the same cause.</p>
<p>And so their laundry backed up. And they were here at a laundromat.</p>
<p>Because Harry really liked to be pinned to the vibrating appliances... and Steve had to admit, he liked pinning Harry down on them, too.</p>
<p>"So..." Steve said after Harry had been quiet for a while, angrily rolling socks and folding shirts. "Deagle from legal said the dragon preserve started offering weddings on dragon-back."</p>
<p>"Deagle's an idiot," Harry said, then quietly added. "I checked. He's full of dragon shite."</p>
<p>"So long as it's not anywhere cold," Steve added. "Where'd your parents get married?"</p>
<p>"Fuck if I know," Harry said. What about yours?"</p>
<p>"Not legal there. Well, not yet."</p>
<p>"We could have a MACUSA rep officiate... if you like."</p>
<p>Steve didn't even glance up from the magazine. "Could have Luna and Henry come. And their families, too. If you want. I know it's not the same but... they're sort-of family I guess."</p>
<p>Harry shrugged. "Wouldn't be the same without my son there to yell at me the whole time."</p>
<p>"Or Hermione to nag me," Steve added, turning the page of the magazine with a small grin.</p>
<p>"Or Ron to complain he's hungry the whole time..."</p>
<p>"Or Fury and his sort sticking their noses in during the honeymoon..."</p>
<p>Two days after they did their laundry Steve and Harry packed a bag each and bought plane tickets after literally throwing darts at a world map.</p>
<p>They were headed for New Zealand. Yeah, it was cold this time of year... but at least it wasn't anywhere near the arctic circle.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>I struggled with this chapter. For months. I started writing this particular part of the Iron Squib series  all the way back in February of 2020, long before ever posting "So We Have Some Issues" and long before "The Sokovia Incident" was even half-way finished. Well, I managed to finish this and chapter 4, "Week Two", today thanks to motivation from a very lovely comment by user <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/jcricket1103/pseuds/jcricket1103">jcricket1103</a>.<br/>Thank you, jcricket1103, for your comment and this chapter, and the next, are dedicated to you.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Week Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A week the pair had been missing.</p>
<p>A week since Sirius Black had appeared in his workshop.</p>
<p>A week since, apparently, some idiot Unspeakable trainee from Ireland had broken a containment chest which led to Death Eaters from the first reign of Voldemort to be set free and, of course, somehow it led to the explosion of the archway that held the Veil of Death in what had used to be the British Ministry of Magic underground facility. At least, that was the Official Story as it was given to Tony.</p>
<p>It wasn't said, but if you understood how things worked, it was easy to see that somehow all of this culminated in the disappearance of one Harry Potter and Captain America.</p>
<p>But that's not what had Tony upset at the moment, though it was certainly on the list. At the moment it was the latest finding that had him bent out of shape...</p>
<p>Tony threw the parchment onto the table before dropping into his chair with a groan. Hermione picked it up and read through it as Pepper offered the little owl a piece of chicken from her salad, as she'd often seen Harry and occasionally Tony do when the strange mail carriers appeared.</p>
<p>"Oh dear..."</p>
<p>"I'm stuck with him. If these people suddenly appeared before their next of kin, why didn't he end up with Teddy and Victorie?"</p>
<p>Hermione re-read the missive again. "The magic at play here is blood magic. Powerful blood magic. To completely bypass his cousin's son in favour of you..."</p>
<p>"Haven't you said before that all the old families in the UK were related? Maybe I'm a closer relation than Teddy is. Somehow. I don't see how, but-"</p>
<p>"No... No. The Potters tended to marry five generations out from any single pureblood family," Hermione began, taking the same tone she often did when lecturing anyone that cared to listen to her long winded explanations of magical theory or history... which was usually only Steve these days. "And they preferred half-blood wives with at least one muggleborn parent whenever possible. It kept the chances of squibs and deformities down compared to the rest of pureblood society. The nearest Black relation to you would be your great grand-aunt Dorea Black Potter. But she married your great-grandfather's older brother Charlus. No one knows for certain what happened to them, but it's safe to assume they and their son died before Harry's parents were murdered. Teddy on the other hand, is a direct relation through his mother, Nymphadora, who herself was the only child of Andromeda Tonks, who herself was one of three daughters of Cygnus Black. Cygnus, of course, was Sirius's uncle. The only way for you to have been chosen by the blood magic at work is if you were closer to Sirius Black, by blood, than a first cousin twice removed. And the only way for THAT to be possible is if you were Sirius's nephew, son, or grand....son..."</p>
<p>It was a lot of information for Pepper to follow, and she looked to Tony to see if he was able to keep up. She seemed lost in thought for a moment before getting an idea. "I have a sneaking suspicion... I've wondered how Sirius got away with giving everything to Harry. Ron and I assumed it was just some medieval loophole for lords that didn't have children of their own." She looked at the next part of the letter. A report of some kind. "Of course! Why didn't I think of it before!"</p>
<p>She was spry for a woman in her 60s as she threw the parchment back down on the table and jumped to her feet. "Wait here!"</p>
<p>And then she was gone. Pepper looked at Tony. Tony looked at Pepper. She then looked at the paper on the table. "I don't like where this is going..."</p>
<p>"Neither do I," Tony said with a sinking realization.</p>
<p>When his dad was found, he was going to likely do more than give the man a black eye.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"Well what was I supposed to do? Let Bella and the Malfoys take everything!"</p>
<p>"So you thought adopting Harry was the best idea?!"</p>
<p>"It worked, didn't it?!"</p>
<p>"Well yes but-"</p>
<p>Tony's forehead met the tabletop for the third time in less than an hour. "God I hate this family..." he muttered. Pepper had already abandoned him the first chance she got which, legitimately, there was a problem at the office that needed her there to sort out. But still... she could have insisted he tag along instead of leaving him to this madhouse!</p>
<p>In the chaos that had come into his life in the last week, he had almost forgotten about Harry and Steve's conveniently timed sudden disappearance. Together. That is, until...</p>
<p>"So, when do I see Harry? He's going to be so surprised!"</p>
<p>Hermione glanced at Tony when the thudding started. Again.</p>
<p>"What's his problem?"</p>
<p>She sighed. "Oh Sirius... You have no idea the can of flobberworms you've just opened..."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>A week and four days he's had to deal with this... this madman in his house. And STILL no word on what happened to Harry and Steve.</p>
<p>The Avengers had been called to action twice in the last four days, and Tony had jumped at the chance to fly out and help them. Rhodey had laughed when he found out why. Sam swore and Natasha had turned right around and told Clint.</p>
<p>It only got worse, though, when Vision had decided to contribute to the conversation, stating that "It's logical given what is known of how a natural wizard and witch's magic works that it would seek out Mr. Stark in Harry's absence when searching for next of kin. They are, after all, father and son."</p>
<p>Rhodes had looked at Tony, but there wasn't surprise or shock to be found there. Only worry. He'd figured it out ages ago. Back when Tony was kidnapped and the wizard carpet bombed the middle east with a damn dragon. Didn't take long after learning about the man's curse to piece together what, exactly, their relationship was.</p>
<p>Sam had looked towards Tony with wide eyes and shock, a loud "WHAT?!" falling from his lips.</p>
<p>Vision looked confused, stating "I believed this was common knowledge? Was it meant to be a secret?"</p>
<p>Natasha was, actually, surprised by this piece of news. That was, in Tony's opinion, the only good thing to come out of the revelation. It was so rare to catch the spy out with something she didn't already know or suspect.</p>
<p>Wanda, though.... When Tony caught her eye... She was suddenly quite pale. "You alright there, Elphaba?" She looked away quickly, putting a hand to her head and making excuses about not feeling well before she all but ran from recreation room. He watched her go and not for the first time did he wonder what, exactly, she had made Harry see when she got into his head. Though he was kind of glad she was still wearing that pendant Harry had hexed the hell out of.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Year Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Steve and Harry had been here for 2 years.</p>
<p>Two long, somewhat eventful years.</p>
<p>In those two years they had saved Harry Potter, now Henry Rogers-Barnes, twice.</p>
<p>The second time travelling with Luna Lovegood for a few months.</p>
<p>They had an adventure in New Zealand, having chosen the location at random with the decision to just go and get married there and see the sights. Only...things didn't exactly go to the slapdash plan that they'd made and they got caught up in the middle of a creature rebellion. They'd tried NOT to interfere – really Steve had been absolutely taken by the scenery and wanted to spend some time sketching it and, maybe, painting it too – but that had been ruined when during the night their wards were breached by an injured Veela seeking shelter for herself and her daughter, not realizing that Harry might SMELL like a creature, he wasn't one.</p>
<p>Days later, because once Steve heard their plight as Harry worked to help heal them, they of course got dragged into it. And of course it was because Steve threw his own words from that curb outside the butcher's shop back at him. "I don't like bullies." While it was a sentiment Harry wholeheartedly agreed with, there was still the matter of...</p>
<p>"We're on a bloody vacation, Steven!" and "We have an appointment at the end of the week with the New Zealand ministry for a bloody wedding!"</p>
<p>And so Harry Potter and Steve Rogers were married by a vampire, in the middle of a siege on an island held by centaurs and goblins, while wizards surrounded the lake and threatened to slaughter everyone there. Their honeymoon was spent fighting for their lives and fighting for creature freedom in New Zealand.</p>
<p>All in all.... they were married on a Thursday, the fighting had ended a week later and Harry and Steve spent the last day of their honeymoon overseeing a treaty between the creatures of New Zealand and the Wizarding community.</p>
<p>"Next time," Harry had said when Steve dragged him back through their hotel door, a bit drunk from the after-treaty party. "Lets just run off to Vegas."</p>
<p>"Honestly," Steve said when Harry had dragged him down onto their sofa, "It wasn't as bad as being trapped in an elevator with Tony and Thor for 18 hours."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Married life, Steve observed, suited Harry surprisingly well. Despite not seeing his therapist, he did seem to close himself off less and less. There were still days when Steve would wake to find it'd be best if he left the apartment for a day or two, which wasn't a hardship. Between missions for WARD (which were nowhere as frequent as for the Avengers or SHIELD), he'd taken up doing odd jobs for their neighbours to keep himself busy. And practising his new magical abilities.</p>
<p>Harry did, however, do his best to maintain his rather strict medication regimen as best as he could. He spent much time fine tuning his potions when his bizarre biology required it (sometimes with disastrous results).</p>
<p>Today, as it happened, was one of Harry's better days. He could tell because when he came back from his morning run, the apartment smelled like blueberry muffins rather than apple cinnamon bread. Apple cinnamon, his wizard had said once was one of his dead friend's favourites and when he was in his black moods he tended to skew more towards breads, spices, and savoury flavours. His good moods tended to lean more into cakes, sweet, and fruity.</p>
<p>Case in point, the blueberry pancakes that were waiting for him, and the muffins fresh out of the oven on a cooling rack, currently being brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with coloured sugars.</p>
<p>Steve stood in the doorway, his shoulder pressed against the frame and his arms crossed as he watched Harry bustle around the little kitchen. An empty cardboard carton stained with blueberry juice sitting on the counter next to one half-empty. A pot of water on the stove, waiting for him to add the cup of oats that sat on the counter between the stove and the cooling rack of muffins. The wizard had turned on the radio they'd gotten shortly after moving in and was singing off-key to some song playing without a care in the world. He kept flubbing the words, but that didn't seem to bother him any. He was reminded, watching Harry like this – so uncaring and unguarded – that even back home it was a rare sight. He was more like the Harry he'd first met. The one who didn't yet spend three months falling in love with the man he was meant to keep safe.</p>
<p>This was the man Steve had known back then. This was the man he'd found himself thinking of time and again in his rare private moments during the war, and then feeling quite guilty for it after. Strange and kind and despite the shit Steve now knew he'd gone through... still so incredibly hopeful and full of life.</p>
<p>He rubbed his thumb against band on his finger. The one that had been taken and reforged just for him, not knowing that Steve was already wanting to ask him to run off and elope – it had helped that he'd learned the world had changed so much while he was gone all that time. That there were some places where they could go, and they could make honest men of each other before God and everyone.</p>
<p>Harry flubbed another couple of words from a different song, and Steve laughed.</p>
<p>The wizard yelped, turning and throwing the sugar at Steve in surprise before scolding him. "Don't sneak up like that! I could have killed you!"</p>
<p>Steve laughed again, harder this time as he wiped at the coloured granules. "At least I haven't had my shower yet," he replied as Harry continued to scowl.</p>
<p>"Just for that, you can squeeze your OWN orange juice!"</p>
<p>"Not a hardship, I promise," Steve quipped. "You done in here or am I showering alone this morning?"</p>
<p>Harry was about to complain, but cut himself off mid-thought and scowled at him again. Without a word, he turned back to the stove, turned off the eye with the pot of water that had just begun to boil and moved the pot to the cooler back-burner.</p>
<p>"Well?" Steve asked from the doorway.</p>
<p>Harry narrowed his eyes as he came across the kitchen, banishing the spilled sugar that had landed on the floor as he went. "You're lucky you're cute," he finally said, taking a handful of Steve's sweaty shirt as the man moved to let Harry pass through out of the kitchen.</p>
<p>"Not like you can take me back for a refund," Steve said with an obnoxious grin. "You overturned the government and got us banned from the country."</p>
<p>"Says the one that held the Minister for Magic by his bloody toes over a frozen lake and said we'll see him in 70 years. Now come on. You stink and you can never quite reach that one spot on your back by yourself."</p>
<p>Steve let himself be dragged through the apartment, grinning as Harry mumbled and grumbled the whole way.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Harry and Steve were in Washington DC, tasked with a very important assignment with WARD. Someone had found an object of immense magical power. An object that resembled something the two men had asked about at one time, but could find nothing on in the archives.</p>
<p>It was an all-powerful magical relic of the ancient days when wizards and witches still followed the worship of the old gods.</p>
<p>And it was in the hands of no-maj.</p>
<p>But that was not why they were called in to track it down and retrieve it.</p>
<p>They were called in because...</p>
<p>"For once.... Just once...." Harry said as he slammed his head on the table in front of him. "Can this NOT be about that damn Potter boy!"</p>
<p>"The Potter Boy, as you call him wasn't the target. This time," the WARD handler said, offering the folder to Steve since Harry was still letting his head hit the table a few more times. "He was, unfortunately, at the wrong place at the wrong time."</p>
<p>Steve opened the file, curious to what he would find inside. And he frowned. "Are you sure this is right?"</p>
<p>"This is the latest intel that we have, Captain."</p>
<p>"Why us?"</p>
<p>She shrugged. "You're the best we have and while you are still here with us, we call you when we don't think we have anyone else that can get the job done. That was part of the deal that was made for your identities, lest you forget."</p>
<p>"Oh we haven't forgotten," Harry muttered, rubbing his forehead. He held his hand out for Steve to pass him the folder, but Steve wouldn't hand it over. Not yet.</p>
<p>"I don't think we're right for this case," he said to the handler. "Specifically, Harry isn't right for this case. Pair me up with anyone else and I'll see to it the job gets done and the hostages are extracted. But if you send Harry in, I can guarantee you there will be more deaths and you might end up with a crater where a major US city used to be."</p>
<p>Harry narrowed his eyes, looking from Steve to the handler and back again. He reached for the folder. "I think I'd best look at that for myself."</p>
<p>"Harry..."</p>
<p>"Steven."</p>
<p>They stared at one another for a long moment before Steve made a decision. "I'll give you the file on one condition. When, not if, I say you're done, you're done."</p>
<p>"I won't agree to anything until I see that file."</p>
<p>"No. I want your word, Harry. When I tell you... You. Are. DONE. No questions. No complaints. You follow my orders."</p>
<p>"I don't listen to orders, especially not yours..."</p>
<p>"I know. So you understand why this one time, you either will, or you don't take the mission. No discussion."</p>
<p>Harry glared at him, then glowered and thought it over. Sure, Steve got pissed when Harry wouldn't follow orders. Yeah, they both knew Harry was a reckless asshole at the best of times but... "If i give you a wizard's oath, would that be acceptable?"</p>
<p>"It can't kill you, and you'll only squib yourself until you get killed and walk it off. No, I want your word – the word of My Husband – that you'll listen to me and you will trust orders this time."</p>
<p>It was another long moment before Harry drew in a breath, held it, then exhaled slowly, his expression softening. "Is it really that bad? That you'd resort to THAT?"</p>
<p>"It is."</p>
<p>Harry looked to the handler. "And do you think my skills are the best fit for this mission?"</p>
<p>"Your decades of experience with mixed magical and no-maj terrorist organizations, your adaptability coupled with Captain Rogers' tactical prowess and invulnerability are the assets that led us to choose the pair of you, specifically, for this assignment. Had they not snatched The-Boy-Who-Lived as well as their intended target, we still would have turned to you for this before considering anyone else."</p>
<p>Harry gave a slow nod, then held out his hand again. "You have my word, Steven, that I will follow your orders... except when your orders are incredibly stupid and counter-intuitive to the situation at hand."</p>
<p>Steve rolled his eyes, but knew that was the best he would get out of him and handed him the folder. He didn't have to wait long before he felt Harry's magic spike and the light above them sparked as the bulb exploded. Steve and the handler took out their wands and cast one of the few spells Steve could do effectively – the Lumos.</p>
<p>Harry's eyes were bright, and almost seemed to crackle with magic as he read through the file a second time by the light of their spells. "When I get my hands on them-"</p>
<p>"You will not level the city."</p>
<p>"Of course not. I'll take them to fucking space if I have to!"</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"You are. One of the dumbest smart people I have ever met!" Harry shouted at the man as he and Steve held the door closed against the mutated beasts that threatened to burst in and eat them all.</p>
<p>"Now is NOT the time, Harry!" Steve shouted at him. "The tesseract is still in the lab and we're pinned in the damn break room!"</p>
<p>"And who's fault was THAT!?"</p>
<p>"For once, YOURS!" Steve shouted back as a young man and a familiar teenage girl helped a pregnant woman into a chair near the refrigerator.</p>
<p>"MINE?! I'm not the one that opened a portal to a hell dimension!" Harry exclaimed as he tried to keep his hands steady enough to cast some strengthening spells on the door behind his and Steve's back. "No, that has STARK written all over it!"</p>
<p>"Will the two of you shut up!" the woman shouted from her chair, causing the teenagers to fuss over her and the scientist to gape at her. "If you're going to throw blame at anyone, then throw it at me!"</p>
<p>"Maria-"</p>
<p>"No, Howard! You only agreed to help them with that... that.... that mad machine because they said they could fix me and save the baby! Nothing else has worked and.... and... it's not your fault!"</p>
<p>Harry was silenced, and Steve watched him from the corner of his eye as he turned his green gaze away from the woman in shame. "Harry..."</p>
<p>"No, she's right," he said quietly. "Hold the door as best as you can. I can't hold steady enough to cast with it constantly jarring like this."</p>
<p>"You'll only get one shot," Steve said worriedly.</p>
<p>Harry nodded. "Then I'd best make it a good one, or everyone here but you and me are dead."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>It was close, but they managed to save at least the Starks, an old Rune Master that had been brought in and forced to consult on the strange markings of the cube – a Rune Master that Henry had apprenticed to now that he had finished his schooling early and Luna had been visiting at the time – and a heavily pregnant Maria Stark.</p>
<p>The hell dimension that had been opened up in the sub-basement of a secret Russian safehouse in Los Angeles of all places, was once again sealed away with a warning that if they ever came back they'd have their asses handed to them. Of course, not in so many words but Steve's shield made quite an impression on a great many skulls. And Harry's sword work wasn't too shabby either.</p>
<p>The tesseract was safely held in a vault at WARD. The Starks were returned to their up-state New York mansion – with their memories modified to keep the secret of magic, well, a secret – and Henry was safely back home with his dads.</p>
<p>"If I have to come save your ass one more damn time, kid, I think I'll leave you to fucking rot," had been Harry's parting remarks.</p>
<p>Henry had the good sense to look embarrassed. "It's not like I ask for these things to happen on purpose," he said. "Besides, you know what it's like. I don't go looking for trouble. It just finds me."</p>
<p>"I have no idea what you're talking about," Harry said.</p>
<p>Henry rolled his eyes and reached over, jabbing a finger at a scar on the man's forehead. "Forgot to hide it this time, idiot."</p>
<p>Steve got a good laugh and bid farewell to the teens. Henry winced shortly after the big man with the metal frisbee stepped through the glowing, spinning portal because immediately after a voice shouts from the porch...</p>
<p>"What the hell time do you call this!? You run off without a damn word and worry your pops sick! You know he's got a bad heart! How the hell do you expect me to keep him from runnin off after you with only one good arm!"</p>
<p>Henry turned to look up to the house. "Just a damn minute you cranky old coot!" he shouted back, causing the man to laugh and head back inside. "I'd better..."</p>
<p>Harry nodded, patting his shoulder. "You know they love you, right?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. They tell me every day," Henry said before closing the distance between them and wrapping his arms around the man he now knew was just another Harry Potter. "It's weird that you're shagging one of my dads."</p>
<p>"It's weird for me too you know..." he said before he was let go. "But really, next time you get caught up in shit like this, I'll leave you to fucking rot."</p>
<p>"No you won't."</p>
<p>Luna shook her head and linked arms with the younger Harry Potter. "Yes," she said. "He will. Because he'll be home by then."</p>
<p>"Great..."</p>
<p>The girl grinned, getting up on her tiptoes to give Henry a kiss on the cheek. "Don't worry. Cedric won't let you sit too long waiting to be rescued."</p>
<p>"Cedric?" he asked her, looking down into her face and frowning. "Diggory? But he's-"</p>
<p>"Boys..." Luna cut him off with a sigh and slipped her arm out of Henry's. "I think I fancy a pudding. Do your fathers have any pickles do you think?"</p>
<p>"Pickles?..."</p>
<p>Harry blinked a few times, then his eyes went wide as he realized.... chocolate pudding and pickles had been... that had been one of the things Luna had been craving during their captivity after she'd...</p>
<p>"I think that's my cue to leave," Harry said. "Don't worry. He'll catch on eventually."</p>
<p>She nodded and closed the distance between them, giving him a tight hug. "Goodbye, Harry Potter," she said softly.</p>
<p>He closed his eyes and stood there for just a moment before pulling away. "Goodbye, Luna Lovegood," he said at last, then looked back to Henry. "You take good care of her." He soon left them, stepping through the portal to join Steve at Headquarters.</p>
<p>After it closed behind him, he let his shoulders sag and stepped closer to his husband, wrapping his arms around his waist and resting his head against the man's broad chest.</p>
<p>"What took so long?"</p>
<p>"Just... finally letting some shit go. Feels.... good actually." He sighed when he felt Steve's hold tighten, and a kiss to the top of his head.</p>
<p>"Let's get this paperwork finished and head home. Forget about the world for a few days."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Maria and Howard Stark welcomed their son, Anthony Edward Stark into the world in December of 1969, a month after their 'adventure' with the Tesseract. He was born a bit on the small side, but otherwise healthy and whole.</p>
<p>The no-maj newspapers announced it, much to Harry's shock. Sure, Stark Industries was already quite well known so of course the birth of the famous CEO's son would make the papers. No, it was the fact that the boy was born AT ALL that had shocked Harry.</p>
<p>They'd learned in debriefing that the no-maj had teamed up with some rogue magicals, muggleborn who were bitter about the worlds being separate and wanted to do something about it. Wanted to find a way to contact some other dimension where magic was common place. There was more to it, like where all the money came from or were they one single cell of a larger operation. Unfortunately nothing had been left behind – or survived the two-man assault on the place – to be able to discern one way or another.</p>
<p>Overall though, the group had succeeded... just not the way they'd imagined. In return for Howard Stark's cooperation, they had offered to "fix" his wife who was having a very difficult time getting pregnant and staying pregnant. Just as she had in Harry and Steve's home timeline.</p>
<p>Steve didn't understand why Harry was so thrown by the news, telling him, "You knew Tony was going to be born eventually," he said. "After all, he's your cousin. Through his mom, right?"</p>
<p>Harry hadn't brothered to either correct him or not. Instead he was.... confused.</p>
<p>Because as far as he knew, Luna had hinted she was pregnant. Or, she was going to be very soon... Could there really be two different versions of the same man in this place? One who was meant to be Tony Stark and one that actually WAS, at least biologically, Tony Stark?</p>
<p>"I think..." Harry had finally said to his husband. "I think we messed something else up here... Because that's not... That's not the same Tony Stark."</p>
<p>"What do you mean 'not the same' Tony Stark? I says right here in black and white-"</p>
<p>"And that's the problem. Maria couldn't have children, Steve. She was supposed to lose the baby so that in a few years she and Howard would adopt one... but we messed it up."</p>
<p>"What does that even mean, Harry?"</p>
<p>"It means..." Harry said after taking a long, slow breath.</p>
<p>And Steve didn't like it when Harry did that because it usually meant one of two things. He was agreeing just to shut him up or he was about to tell him something he probably wouldn't like and might get angry about... because Harry once again hadn't been entirely truthful with him. "Should I get coffee or my gym bag?"</p>
<p>"I... I don't know... I actually don't know. On one hand I'm about to break a promise and you know I take those very seriously. On the other..." He swallowed and looked up from where he was sitting, his eyes filled with uncertainty and the vulnerability he only ever let Steve or Tony see. "On the other hand you're my husband. My family. And you have more than earned my trust and-"</p>
<p>"I'll go make coffee. Should I check if we've got apples and cinnamon in the kitchen, too?"</p>
<p>Harry's laugh was hollow as he leaned back in his seat. "No... Maybe?... We'll see how it goes?"</p>
<p>Steve nodded, reaching out and stroking Harry's arm as he walked past to get a pot of their strongest coffee ready and waiting.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>They'd gone through two cups each before Harry finally set his down and began to fiddle with hem of his long sleeves. He wouldn't look at Steve as he chewed his lip in thought.</p>
<p>"If you're this worked up about it, you don't have to tell me."</p>
<p>"No I do. Because... Because if you don't know then when we get back home... whenever that is... It's going to make things complicated with my son."</p>
<p>"What? You think I wouldn't want him? And what does this have to do with-" Steve stopped himself when Harry looked away again. "....Well shit."</p>
<p>"Yeah."</p>
<p>"So this world's Harry and Luna-"</p>
<p>"I don't know when, exactly but... I think it might have been around the time they were kidnapped with Henry's Rune Master or... maybe before that."</p>
<p>"But you can't have-"</p>
<p>"I could before i became an immortal Master of Death, remember. I DO have a son back home. And we prevented THIS Harry from turning out like me."</p>
<p>Steve stood up without another word and went to the kitchen. Harry heard a bit of banging around before Steve came back, put down a bottle of the good liquor they'd bought after returning home from New Zealand.</p>
<p>"Ogden's Finest," Steve said as he opened the bottle. "The only damn thing that'll let me feel it for a little while." He poured himself a little in his empty coffee mug, then offered it to Harry, who nodded and indicated his own.</p>
<p>"So.... are you.... mad?"</p>
<p>"Honestly? Not really, but now your not wanting Tony to know about us makes a lot more sense," Steve said with a sigh as he picked up his cup after he poured Harry's drink and put the bottle down. "And honestly if you'd told me who he was before then I doubt we'd be married now."</p>
<p>"It was a magical wedding. Can't return me."</p>
<p>Steve shook his head, took a swallow of the hot, burning liquid and belched a bit of smoke unexpectedly. "Not," he said, wiping his mouth on the back of his hand. "Not what I meant."</p>
<p>"Then what did you mean?"</p>
<p>"Well first off, you could have had Tony pay for the wedding."</p>
<p>Harry burst into laughter.</p>
<p>"And second, I know you wanted your family there. Your REAL family. As exciting as our wedding was, I'd take dealing with a pissed off Tony Stark in the suit than wizards trying to kill me half-way through my vows and before I even get to kiss my groom."</p>
<p>Between them they finished off the bottle and ended up curled up on the sofa. Harry was nestled nice and comfortable under Steve's arm and pressed against his side. His legs were pulled up and he was content with being as small as possible as Steve had coaxed the full story – the missing bits – of Harry and Luna's son out of his husband. The blanks of how Harry knew Peggy and continued to know her through the years made more sense now than just being a friend of her niece.</p>
<p>His hatred for Howard Stark made more sense now, too.</p>
<p>"You know..." Steve said long after Harry had talked himself out and they were just... there. Relaxed and half-asleep. "The Ancient One came by a while back."</p>
<p>"What?!"</p>
<p>"Yeah. He didn't want to talk to you. Said there were some things we had to do and you wouldn't like it... but ever since there's been something I wanted to ask you about. Guess it doesn't matter now."</p>
<p>"What?"</p>
<p>"Without the war," he said. "Your magic war that is... he said there wouldn't be a Tony Stark. And without Tony Stark, the world is doomed." Steve shrugged. "Like I said... guess it doesn't matter now."</p>
<p>"Right. Because instead of none, now there's two of them."</p>
<p>"And one of them is going to have magic."</p>
<p>"But he's a squib."</p>
<p>"Different circumstances, Harry. Just because YOUR son was the result of... well... It doesn't mean that THEIR son will be, too."</p>
<p>"Shit. I wonder if he'll have an arc reactor powered by magic instead of based on the tesseract."</p>
<p>"Hell, would he even have the suit at all?"</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Valentines Day was, in Harry's opinion, supposed to be a normal day.</p>
<p>And it was.</p>
<p>Until he realized he'd stepped into Magical Britain of his own accord, clean-shaven and with a new haircut which didn't exactly cover his scar very well.</p>
<p>But damn it, he felt like cleaning himself up a bit for his date with his husband that night and he didn't really think anyone would notice since Harry Potter hadn't been seen in public since the summer after 4th year. Well, not in Wizarding London anyway.</p>
<p>Harry didn't realize at first that he was being followed around Diagon and Knockturn Alley as he did his shopping. Stop by the apothecary here to pick up some ingredients for the potion that regulated – or rather attempted to regulate – his blood. Stop by this supplier over in that dark nook to pick up the rare ingredients for his mood stabilizing potions. Snatch a book and a rather pretty bracelet in the window of a curio shop over that-away.</p>
<p>Normal coming and going, really. Things on his list. Things not on his list. Getting a new pair of dragonhide gloves as a gift to Steve since they fit his hands better than the ones made to go with his uniform originally (since they'd been damaged beyond repair anyway). And a rather nice leather coat made of Ironbelly hide – which is what he originally came to the alley for anyway because he'd wanted to give it to Steve that night before they went out to dinner.</p>
<p>It wasn't until he'd stopped to grab a bite to eat at the Leaky, his shopping done and with time to spare before he had to head back home, that he realized he'd been followed.</p>
<p>"You know..." he said with a groan as two bodies filled the booth across from him. "With all my training and abilities and experience I should have known someone was tailing me..."</p>
<p>"Where the hell have you been, mate?!"</p>
<p>"Seamus! Really!"</p>
<p>"Y'know, I never really expected the pair of you to end up together," he said, half turning to raise his hand up and call for Tom to bring him 3 butterbeers instead of 1. "Then again, I really didn't expect to have to fight Molly bloody Weasley in Nurmengard to rescue myself either."</p>
<p>"I knew it!" the young woman exclaimed, elbowing her boyfriend with a smug grin. "I told you it was Harry from another dimension. You owe me three galleons."</p>
<p>"I don't owe you anything! I never took that bet!"</p>
<p>"You did so. Dean officiated it."</p>
<p>"He did not."</p>
<p>"So..." Harry said as the three butterbeers were put down. "Oh, Tom, could we get two fish and chips, extra vinegar for my mate here, and the lady will have a chicken on rye with a side of steamed broccoli please? All on the same ticket, and no discounts on account of the scar either. I'm just a regular bloke out with some friends."</p>
<p>"Aye, that I'll do, Mr. Potter."</p>
<p>"It's Rogers now, actually," he said. "Married last summer."</p>
<p>"Congratulations. Your meals will be right out."</p>
<p>He turned his attention back to Seamus and Hermione, who both sat gawking at him. "What?"</p>
<p>"You got married!" and "You really are him!" overlapped as each one exclaimed at the same time.</p>
<p>Harry sighed and nodded, taking out his normal wand and casting a few anti-evesdropping charms. "I'd like to know how Hermione came to her conclusion that I'm from another dimension."</p>
<p>"You dropped out of the sky, covered in blood, on top of my best friend who was also covered in blood. And then there's the scar. And the uncanny resemblance even if you were, at the time, trying very hard to look as little like Harry Potter as possible."</p>
<p>"Well there you go then. How do you think I got here?"</p>
<p>She shrugged. "I thought it might have been blood magic. But Ron said, at the time, that if you really were Harry Potter you'd never use blood magic because that's dark and evil and all the other rubbish Ron Weasley usually spouted."</p>
<p>"And where is Ron Weasley now?"</p>
<p>"Dead I hope," Seamus snapped. "The moment people realized our Harry wasn't coming back, he dropped Hermione like a hot potato! Went right back to what he was like in first year!"</p>
<p>"He's not dead. He was taken out of school after his mother died at Nurmengard," Hermione said quietly, then sipped her drink.</p>
<p>Harry gave a subtle nod and did the same. Seamus kept an eye out for their food.</p>
<p>"If it makes you feel any better," Harry said. "Your Harry hasn't been in contact because it wasn't safe for you OR him. Not with Albus Dumbledore still running around. But I'm pretty sure he wouldn't mind hearing from some old friends these days."</p>
<p>"Really?"</p>
<p>Harry nodded. "Really. Though he doesn't go by the name Harry Potter anymore. And you'll need to hire an international owl."</p>
<p>"I knew he'd left the country! Seamus has a cousin, a squib, who works for WARD and they said there was a high profile refugee around the same time Harry was said to have disappeared but they couldn't know for certain since-"</p>
<p>"Since I made sure everyone involved was either sworn with unbreakable vows or obliviated. But you're right. That was him," Harry said, and then he lowered the charms when he spotted Tom heading their way with a tray covered in plates.</p>
<p>The rest of the lunch was awkward, but less so than the beginning. He said he would contact some people and, if it was alright for the pair of them to be in contact with Harry, he'd make sure they were told how and where to reach him.</p>
<p>He let them have the table when he was done eating, excusing himself by telling the truth. "I've got to get home and get things ready for my date tonight with my husband... But before I do... Hermione, have you ever considered becoming a doctor?"</p>
<p>"Healer training?"</p>
<p>"No. I mean an actual doctor. In the No-maj world. One day, I don't know when, the lines between worlds will start to blur and they'll need some good people to help bridge the gap. You're muggleborn, you know what it's like. It's a chance to make a real difference in a way that matters."</p>
<p>"Did your Hermione become a doctor?"</p>
<p>"Yes. Sort of. She's... well, I don't need to tell you what she's like. She does a little bit of everything really. Politics. Medicine. Law. Even helps fight aliens from time to time."</p>
<p>"Aliens aren't real!" Seamus exclaimed. And Harry had to laugh.</p>
<p>"You know, I thought so, too. Until I met Thor. They don't make pop-tarts on Asgard, and he really loves Earth's pop-tarts."</p>
<p>"You're pulling my leg!"</p>
<p>Harry winked at Hermione, and no matter how old he was, no matter how... different he was from the boy she had known, she knew that look. A look that said he was up to something and she wasn't in on it. "Give it about.... lets see this is 1970... so it'll be.... right. Give it 40 years, mate. You'll see. You'll ALL see."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>In March, Luna sent them a letter.</p>
<p>It had photographs in it and a newspaper clipping she was sure they hadn't seen.</p>
<p>"Well I'll be damned..." Steve said, holding the clipping up where Harry could see it. Harry looked up from the pot on the stove where he was brewing. He laughed so hard he nearly forgot how many clockwise stirs he was making.</p>
<p><em>"Boy-Who-Lived married to Newspaper Heiress!" </em>Harry exclaimed, shaking his head as he pulled the glass rod from the pot. "Well, at least he made an honest woman of her this time."</p>
<p>"Wonder what her girlfriend has to say about that," Steve said as he held up some photos from the wedding that Luna's father reported on. "She does look good in that dress."</p>
<p>"I'm just glad the poor bastard had enough sense not to wear dress robes. I've always looked like jackass in those."</p>
<p>"I don't know... your formal uniform is... very fitted."</p>
<p>"And it's not even here so don't get any ideas," Harry warned as he turned the heat down on the pot and covered it with a large metal lid. "Now tell me what the letter said. Did she say how the baby's doing?"</p>
<p>Steve hid his smile behind the sheets of lined paper.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>April came by in a whirlwind, and left just as quickly with little incident for Harry and Steve, who were sent on the occasional petty milk run type of assignment because no one else was available. But they were otherwise left to their own devices.</p>
<p>Sometimes the handlers simply forgot the two men were even around to be sent out on assignment. Not that the pair minded all that much. It just meant that Steve had more time to learn how to use his magic – he was up to casting third year spells now after a particularly foul mood Harry had in mid-January – and enjoy the little things while he still could.</p>
<p>Neither of them spoke of the slow, creeping sense that the end of their exile was approaching. Harry could feel it, and Steve... well Steve got his magic from Harry and Harry's was absolutely buzzing in anticipation of something that they couldn't quite pin down.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Cedric Henry Rogers-Barnes was born on May 29th, 1970 at 9:18PM after two days of labour. He was also born in an elevator at the MACUSA Department of Mysteries where the boy's mother was registering a prophecy orb to the records.</p>
<p>Across the ocean, Steve and Harry were sound asleep when they were woken by quite a racket in their kitchen. Believing someone had broken in to attack them – it wouldn't have been the first time – Steve didn't even bother putting on clothes before instinctively summoning his shield as he burst out of their bedroom. Harry had been sensible enough to grab a bath robe and belt it around the waist as he followed his adrenaline fuelled husband towards the noise.</p>
<p>On the top of a kitchen cabinet, a Tupperware container full of bones was rattling about. Hopping and slamming the wall, the cabinet, anything it could in a bid to escape.</p>
<p>"What the hell?!"</p>
<p>Harry, taking in the scene, couldn't stifle his laughter as he realized.... Death must have tried to use the bones to come tell him something but... it was stuck in the Tupperware! Once he had caught his breath, he moved to get the container. "You go on back to bed love. It's one of my weird magical things."</p>
<p>"All of your magic things are weird."</p>
<p>"Weirder than usual then," he said. "Go on. I'll not open this thing with you still in the kitchen."</p>
<p>Steve eyed the container dubiously. "You sure?"</p>
<p>"You do realize if this had been an actual emergency, you'd be fighting the unknown with naught but your shield, yes? All your delicates dangling about is quite distracting."</p>
<p>Steve ended up crawling back in bed, but he couldn't go back to sleep. Not until Harry returned and after dropping the robe to the floor by the bed slid back in next to him. "Well?"</p>
<p>"Death wanted to tell me Luna's just had the baby."</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>Harry yawned, unwilling to explain. There were just some secrets... some secrets he'd rather not be privy to. "I've a delivery to make in the next few days. It... it'll help us get home."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>In early June, Harry dropped off a Tupperware container full of phoenix bones at the apartment of Henry and Luna Rogers-Barnes with explicit instructions to the new mother never to open it, but to wait until her son was older to give it to him.</p>
<p>She had smiled sadly, looked to the ring she wore on a chain around her neck, and glanced towards the closet where her husband's invisibility cloak was stored. "He'll get this when the right time comes."</p>
<p>"I'm sorry, Moonbeam. I wish it was anyone else but your son. This... this curse I wouldn't wish on anyone. Not even on Voldemort."</p>
<p>"Did you know," she said, though her voice had lacked it's usual brightness. "When I first went into labour I had a vision? It was... It was so much like the one i had when you and I met on the steps of Hogwarts. I Saw things... horrible, terrible things..."</p>
<p>"Don't dwell on that now."</p>
<p>"He's going to be a hero, you know," she said about the child asleep in the next room. "Just like his father."</p>
<p>"I think this time, it's his mum who's the bigger hero."</p>
<p>The corner of her eyes crinkled in mirth. "True... but then again you've always known he takes more after his mother than most people think. Trust his instincts, Harry. He might not have the same Sight as I do, but he has enough. And one day, you'll all see what I have Seen. I just hope you're ready for it when the time comes."</p>
<p>"What aren't you telling me?"</p>
<p>She looked away, shaking her head. "I... some things are inevitable. They cannot be avoided. Only delayed or hastened. But others can be altered to a better outcome. That's all I can tell you. My Sight can't see beyond that which looms ahead for us all."</p>
<p>Harry took this ominous warning back, deciding to puzzle it out as best as he could before he brought it up to Steve.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Steve came home from his run on the morning of June 23rd to find the apartment stripped of all their personal possessions.</p>
<p>"What the hell?!"</p>
<p>"Today's the day. I know it."</p>
<p>This wasn't the first time, but it hadn't happened in a while.</p>
<p>"Harry-"</p>
<p>"I just.... I just got this feeling, you know. A really good feeling that today. Today is the day we finally get to leave."</p>
<p>"And what brought this on?"</p>
<p>Harry grinned and held up an empty vial. "Remember that potion I've been working on for the last eight months?"</p>
<p>".....Ye.....ah?"</p>
<p>"It was finished last night! I took the whole bloody bottle this morning when I woke up. I just.... I just have a really good feeling that today is the day."</p>
<p>"So you packed everything we own into your pouch there?"</p>
<p>"Well not everything. I left your shield and uniform out. They're on the bed."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Harry didn't know what to expect when they walked into work later that morning, but it wasn't to find the place in absolute chaos.</p>
<p>It also wasn't to be told the tesseract had been stolen from the vault along with some other rather dubious artefacts.</p>
<p>And Steve certainly didn't wake up this morning with the urge to punch the devil himself in the face to help free a soul from a hell dimension they had dealt with before. But here they were, fighting a giant devil with a man in metal armour over the soul of his dead mother.</p>
<p>"Remind me again why we're doing this Harry?!" Steve shouted as he tried to hang onto the massive arm that had tried to sweep him away into the lava pit just over the ledge there.</p>
<p>"I just.... I have a really good feeling about this!" Harry shouted back as he caught a flaming fist to the face. "Really good feeling!"</p>
<p>"Did that shit wear off and you've been lying for the last eight hours?!"</p>
<p>"N.......no! No! Trust me! We got this!" Harry shouted just before he was flung back into a rocky outcrop. Steve winced and looked away when he heard bones crack as Harry hit the brimstone.</p>
<p>"If you've got a plan, Doom, you'd better-" Steve never got to finish that, as he was finally shaken off and thrown some distance away, landing coincidentally near his shield.</p>
<p>He was a little slower to get to his feet, helped by Harry who was dragging a foot behind him and using his sword as a cane to keep steady. "This better be worth it," Steve grumbled.</p>
<p>"Trust me."</p>
<p>"You keep saying that..."</p>
<p>"And you keep doing it..."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>How they got out of the hell dimension of the being called Mephisto is of little importance. They were sent after the Tesseract. The Tesseract was stolen by the ruler of a small European country that combined magic and science. The man had been the one backing the group they had dealt with previously when they rescued the Starks, Henry, and Luna.</p>
<p>And now, in return for their assistance – though they'd been dragged through the portal unwillingly when it had been opened, he now offered them... well... the one thing that they really wanted.</p>
<p>"I have a machine," he said. "That can open gateways to other worlds outside of this one. Outside of the hell-scape of Mephisto. I could... if you would allow me to analyze you, send you back where you belong."</p>
<p>"What's the catch?"</p>
<p>"No catch. I simply don't enjoy owing debts and I owe the two of you one. Though we did not rescue my mother, I have an entire year to prepare for my next attempt. The fact that I am alive to do so is entirely your doing. This is my reward and repayment."</p>
<p>"Can we just... Can we discuss this for a moment?"</p>
<p>"Of course."</p>
<p>Harry threw up a few spells and turned to Steve. "Just so you know, I WAS going to drink the whole bottle, but after I got most of it down I had a really good feeling that I should save one more sip."</p>
<p>"Thank God you have some common sense."</p>
<p>"No, I just know that when using liquid luck, follow your instincts. And my instincts said to stop and leave one sip for later. Well, this is later. And you should drink it."</p>
<p>"Me? Why me?"</p>
<p>"Because your metabolism burns through it faster and we only need it for this one thing. And.... if i take more so soon after the last one wore off, well... I kinda went through a phase during the war where I kind of lived on the stuff so...."</p>
<p>Steve snatched the bottle from him and shook his head. "You mean you're an addict with this stuff and you didn't think that maybe it would have been better if I took it from the start instead of falling off the wagon yourself."</p>
<p>"We needed it to last longer than it would have if you drank it. Otherwise we'd have missed the opportunity to catch up to Doctor Doom and go into the hell-scape with him, save his life, and get this chance to get home. Now, you drink it right before he does whatever he has to do to get us there. This will make sure we don't get thrown elsewhere or elsewhen again." Steve opened his mouth to complain but Harry then followed it up with, "And yes, my therapist knows I was an addict. So does Hermione. And YES, they will both help me with this. Now lets get a move on. He's looking mighty impatient."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Klaxons were going off.</p>
<p>Alarms blaring.</p>
<p>Suddenly there were lots of people in black SWAT gear pointing guns at them.</p>
<p>Harry was dazed and a little confused, covered in concrete dust as Steve groaned next to him.</p>
<p>One minute they were standing on the platform in Von Doom's lab. The next, Steve drank the last of the liquid luck and they were hurtling through time and space. It was a lot.... brighter than it was the first time with the Veil.</p>
<p>"Steve!" Harry shouted, trying to hear himself over the ringing in his ears. "STEVEN!"</p>
<p>Steve just groaned again in reply.</p>
<p>Above the pair of them were gaping holes through many different floors of a building. People were peering down over the edges.</p>
<p>At the very top stood two very familiar faces, quite shocked at the appearance of what they had initially believed was some kind of bomb or debris from a plane crashing into the tall office building bearing the name STARK INDUSTRIES on the side.</p>
<p>Soon those two were down in the parking garage where the two men had finally stopped.</p>
<p>The ringing in Harry's ears finally stopped and Steve had at least rolled over and gave a thumbs up to show he was alive and, well, somewhat alright.</p>
<p>A woman's voice rang out, echoing off the walls and the cars parked all around them. "WHAT THE HELL?!"</p>
<p>"Are we home?" Steve managed to groan, trying to sit up.</p>
<p>"Huh?"</p>
<p>"Well, do that thing you do," Steve suggested tiredly.</p>
<p>"Right... right... "</p>
<p>But before Harry could really DO much of anything, a second voice shrieked in the basement and Harry and Steve were both seized by the ear. "What bloody time to you call this!" the woman shouted, winking at Tony who was still recording with his phone from his place beside Pepper. "Three weeks you've been missing! THREE WEEKS!"</p>
<p>Harry and Steve both winced as she twisted their ears harder before letting go. "Up you get and straight to my office at the compound! NOW!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Week Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Two weeks.</p>
<p>Two weeks they'd been gone, and now the third week was just starting up. Tony really hoped this didn't turn into one of Harry's months at a time disappearances.</p>
<p>Two weeks, now, and the whole damn team knew the truth about him. About his parentage. That he wasn't REALLY a Stark...</p>
<p>FRIDAY had already done damage control to keep that under tighter wraps than an oath bound Unspeakable at a drunken frat party. It helped that, apparently, according to the magical world, though it was known in certain circles, anyone that let the secret slip died where they sat or stood.</p>
<p>Boy was the magic UN not exactly happy to find that out the hard way. Had to give it to dear old dad. The man was good with wording oaths and tricking the unwary into agreeing to them with a completely different interpretation of it.</p>
<p>At the moment, though, Tony couldn't be bothered to give it much thought as he pretended to ignore Pepper as she ran through a list of projects the company was working on. She didn't know she had his attention until she'd stopped and Tony asked her if there was anything else.</p>
<p>"Actually... Mr. Black is just outside the lab waving at us."</p>
<p>"Damn it. I told my aunt to keep him upstairs. FRIDAY, would you tell the old bag of bones to come get-"</p>
<p>"I'm sorry Boss, but she's been called away for an emergency."</p>
<p>"Do you want me to get rid of him for you? He seemed really fascinated by the flatscreen in the second den."</p>
<p>Tony looked up from the motorcycle he was working on. The one Harry gave him that had let him fly across the city long before he ever made his first suit. The man's eyes were wide as he took in what Tony was doing before the man shook his head. "Let him in, FRIDAY."</p>
<p>"You sure about that, Boss?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. According to my old man, the dog's good with his hands. Especially when it comes to fixing machines."</p>
<p>"Alright," came FRIDAY's voice again as Pepper drew a deep breath, ready to snap a quick one-liner to shoot the man down like every time he tried to flirt with her.</p>
<p>"Finally!" Sirius exclaimed as he came through the now open door. "Didn't think that woman would ever let me in! I'm bored!"</p>
<p>"So read a book," Pepper suggested. Sirius waved at her and rolled his eyes as he came closer.</p>
<p>"Need to do something. Keep busy. Otherwise I start to forget I don't have magic anymore and start breaking shit. Last I remember, you didn't like that."</p>
<p>Pepper eyed him a moment before turning to Tony. "Any of those projects catch your interest?"</p>
<p>"The hologram one. Keep a close eye on it. I've got a few ideas of my own, but I'd like to see what the girls and boys in R&amp;D come up with," he said as he picked up a rag to wipe the grease off his hands. "And check in with the magical side of things. See if there's anything we can merge with the new line of Stark tech that could work and put it in front of a test group. Without Harry here to throw gadgets at, we need a wider range of magicals using the prototypes at high power levels to push the limits and see where we need to improve before going to market."</p>
<p>Pepper made some notes on her tablet, not even looking up. "Dinner tonight?"</p>
<p>"Probably not. Got a lot of aggression to work through and a lot of suits to upgrade."</p>
<p>"I thought not. Pizza will be here around 6. I'll make sure Happy's around to get the door for you."</p>
<p>Sirius watched them, eyes going back and forth to follow the conversation. Eventually he gave up and directed his interest to what Tony was working on. Though it looked more... modern... it also looked a little familiar. "You uh.... you like bikes?"</p>
<p>Tony looked at him, shrugged. "Could say that."</p>
<p>"Looks like you've got some runes scratched in on that... mind if I have a look?"</p>
<p>Pepper took that as her cue to leave, quietly instructing FRIDAY to keep an eye on them and give her a ring if things went bad.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>So long as they kept to shop talk, the last few days went pretty well for Tony and Sirius. Though the man was still mostly Hermione's bag of cats to deal with Tony found himself looking forward to hearing the man's ideas when it came to enchanting his motorcycles. Or anything for that matter.</p>
<p>Hermione had taken to teaching him about the last 40 years that he had missed, giving him only a historical approach rather than detailing personal stories. At least not the ones that weren't hers to tell. The topic of Harry was limited to his official work, some of his personal life, but nowhere near the amount of detail Sirius wanted to hear from her. And the man knew better than to ask Tony by now.</p>
<p>But that didn't mean no one talked about Harry at all, nor gave Sirius what he wanted.</p>
<p>In fact...</p>
<p>Four days into the third week, when Sirius woke up and came out to breakfast, the lovely voice that he still had a difficult time believing wasn't a real person OR a ghost, told him to go to the parlour when he was done eating as, "Boss and his auntie have something to show you."</p>
<p>When Sirius was done, one of the contraptions that ran about the place – this one was called Dum-E he recalled, brought him a cup of coffee. Giving it a little pat on the metal hand-thing it had, he thanked it and did as he'd been told.</p>
<p>On the wall of the room were three frames. One of them empty. But the others... well...</p>
<p>"Padfoot!?"</p>
<p>Tony smiled, and it was the first big and genuine smile Sirius had seen on the man since he'd arrived. "I had Hermione bring them over from my old rooms at the Tower. Dad's originals are still over at the compound, but if you want to see yours I could have her swap your old frame with the copy I have."</p>
<p>"I... I forgot we... I forgot we even had these done..."</p>
<p>The painted Lily was smiling from ear to ear as her husband waved at him. "Sirius it's so good to see you! And alive! When your portrait went to sleep and never woke back up we were so worried."</p>
<p>"Where's the rat's? There should be-"</p>
<p>"Dad set it on fire the moment he saw it," Tony said. Sirius nodded his understanding. "We'll leave you to it then. I'll be out all day but Hermione-"</p>
<p>"I'll be working in the lab with FRIDAY doing research. If the windows are blacked out, just call for her and she'll let you in."</p>
<p>Sirius nodded and gave them a wave as he chatted with the portraits of his long dead family.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Two weeks and six days after the appearance of Sirius Black in his lab, and the man finally figured out how to get FRIDAY to do what he wanted. All he'd had to do was ask her really. But he'd never thought to do so, always trying to sneak about and figure it out himself.</p>
<p>Tony found him sitting on a sofa watching the intangible holoscreens she projected for him. One some there was footage of the Avengers fighting monsters and robots and an assortment of other villains. Others there were clips from interviews. On more was simply just information and old news articles that had been scanned and digitized.</p>
<p>Sirius startled when a tumbler of scotch was put in his hand. "A little overwhelming isn't it?"</p>
<p>"Muggles... know about us?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. It's a brave new world out there old man," she said, leaning over the back of the sofa with his own glass and took a sip. "FRIDAY, baby girl, turn it all off and bring up that one interview Harry did about a week after Sokovia came down."</p>
<p>"Which one, Boss?"</p>
<p>"The one he did with WHIH."</p>
<p>"The one with Christine Everhart?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. Start it from the beginning of the segment, before she introduced him."</p>
<p>The holoscreens flickered out of existence, only to be replaced with another one. An attractive blonde woman behind a news desk stared at them, through the camera, with a grave expression on her face. "<em>One week ago the world watched on as the Avengers came together to fight a deadly global threat and the people of Sokovia paid the ultimate price. While the UN coordinates clean-up of the latest disaster these so-called Heroes leave in their wake, one of them has refused to go home until he's seen to it every missing person and every body has been accounted for. And in doing so has dragged an entire society kicking and screaming out of the quite literal broom closet-"</em></p>
<p>Sirius nearly choked on his scotch, and Tony shook his head and sighed, but otherwise continued to watch.</p>
<p>
  <em> "-taken some time out of his work in the refugee camps to speak with us tonight. Many of you know him as the magic wielding Avenger, Agent Grim, who joined the team after the invasion of New York City. His people know him as Lord Harry James Potter-Black, a member of the elite aristocracy with an... unconventional background."</em>
</p>
<p>After this, the screen split to show on one side, the newscaster, Ms. Everhart. On the other the eternally young face of Harry Potter.</p>
<p>
  <em> "Thank you, Lord Potter, for taking the time-"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> "Just call me Harry. I'm no better than anyone else, Miss Everhart."</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> "Then you'll have to call me Christine."</em>
</p>
<p>Sirius wrapped both hands around his half-empty tumbler and scooted forward, sitting on the edge of the sofa cushions. Eyes wide and confused. Ever since his return to the mortal world, he'd not been allowed to see photos of his godson. Well, not anything recent that is. "He's so.... so...."</p>
<p>"Young."</p>
<p>"But it's been 40 years... He hardly looks older than-"</p>
<p>"It's not a potion or a trick if that's what you're thinking," Tony said as the interview played on. "He's stuck like that. Forever."</p>
<p>"Well, not so bad..." Sirius said but didn't really believe his own words. "He'll be the youngest ghost in the graveyard."</p>
<p>"You don't get it," Tony said, finishing off his drink and standing upright. Sirius turned away from the projection, looking at the son of the boy he'd so secretly adopted. "Forever. It means literally for all time. He can't die. Believe me, he's tried."</p>
<p>"No-"</p>
<p>"He'll outlive every single one of us. Well... maybe not ALL of us. Jury's still out on Vision and Cap."</p>
<p>Sirius stared at him, horror warring with pity before he finished off his own drink and turned back to the interview. He watched as his godson talked about healers and potions and explained how wizards' tents worked with expanding spaces... and everything the magical community was doing to help the displaced people of Sokovia after the disaster.</p>
<p>The more he watched, though, and listened to Harry's explanations and answers to the woman's very direct and at times accusatory questions... the more Sirius realized... "He's not changed much, has he?"</p>
<p>"What's that?"</p>
<p>"Harry. Everything I've seen... he still throws himself in head first. And look how exhausted he is there on your floating telly. And he just won't pack it in and go home."</p>
<p>Tony shrugged. "Yeah, well, I certainly didn't get this whole super hero thing from my mother."</p>
<p>"Who IS your mum? Harry's never exactly been much of a skirt chaser..." He let his words hang a few moments, glancing at Tony, who watched him back from the corner of his eye. "If I knew her I could probably tell you some stuff."</p>
<p>Tony considered it for a long moment. The subject of his mother was not one spoken of lightly between him and his dad. He'd talk about her sometimes, but it usually didn't last long. Plus, there was the fact they didn't really get all that close until the middle of the war, a few years after Sirius Black had died.</p>
<p>"Luna Lovegood," Tony finally said. And Sirius sighed sadly. "Don't think you knew her. She wasn't part of your faction in the war."</p>
<p>"No... no you're right, I didn't," he said. "But I did know her parents. If you're interested I could tell you some wild stories about your grandmother Pandora before she settled down with that barmy sod Xeno. Made for each other, they were."</p>
<p>That was not where he had expected the conversation to go. Instead of letting the interview finish playing out, Tony called for FRIDAY to cut it off and order up some pizzas. "Let's take this down to the garage. See what we can cobble together while you tell me about my crazy grandparents."</p>
<p>Sirius nodded, getting to his feet and stopping only long enough to put his empty glass down. "There was this one time Prongs, Moony and I caught Pandy running out of the forbidden forest in nothing but her knickers chased by a mob of nifflers screamin their bloody little heads off. Dead middle of winter, too! It was a few hours before Moony had to head for the usual spot for his monthly furry problem..."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Tony received a frantic call in the middle of the sixth day of the third week.</p>
<p>Hermione had gotten a patronus from the Unspeakable assigned to the case of the two missing Avengers. There was a breakthrough. Sort of. Tony was, for once, in the office and was so grateful to be called away from an impending meeting that he didn't even care about the fact he was still kind of pissed at his dad and, apparently, his dad's boyfriend.</p>
<p>They met back at his and Pepper's home, and he was the last to arrive.</p>
<p>The Unspeakable wasted no time going over what they had discovered, showing the research to Hermione and comparing notes. "Between what we've been able to learn from the debris left behind from the Veil's explosion and Dr. Granger-Weasley's detailed research on magical theory and the assumption that Mr. Potter's... medical condition-"</p>
<p>"Just call it what it is," Tony said. "The bastard's immortal."</p>
<p>"Well... yes. That. Assuming the Veil of Death couldn't circumvent whatever curse has caused his, as you say, immortality then the logical answer is that it had to send him somewhere. As for Captain Rogers, some of us in the department believe he may have survived based on, again, Dr. Granger-Weasley's work but others refuse to accept this blending of muggle and magical sciences and strongly believe him to have died once he passed through."</p>
<p>"The same can be said about grandpa Sirius in guest room two."</p>
<p>The Unspeakable nodded their agreement. "Some who have been Returned claim to have visited other worlds with other outcomes to major events going on at the time of their arrival. Wars that were never fought, wars that WERE fought. Even worlds where they themselves were never born. Others... such as Mr. Black, did not share this experience and simply... existed in some other, unknowable realm that has left lasting scars for some and become fleeting nightmares for others." They shrugged. "My boss calls it a Cosmic Holding Cell."</p>
<p>"Well let's hope they didn't end up there!" Hermione exclaimed worriedly.</p>
<p>Tony rolled his eyes and folded his arms, leaning back against one of the poolside tables. "Yeah, right. They'd be running the place after two days. Anyone not running scared of Harry within 24 hours would end up with a shield smashed to the head just for looking at either of them funny."</p>
<p>The Unspeakable actually laughed and gave a slight nod. "Fortunately I can assure you this is not the case."</p>
<p>Hermione's worry didn't magically go away at those words though. "How?"</p>
<p>"We've created a spell based on the combined research of our department and your own. With a bit of help from the dwarves of Greenland. We used our only DNA sample from Mr. Potter and were able to see for a brief time, what has become of him. At the time we saw him fighting in some kind of hedge maze all manner of dark creatures. It only allowed us a small window, but we were able to see him leave the maze and rejoin the group he was supposed to be with."</p>
<p>"Please tell me Steve was there too!"</p>
<p>"There's no mistaking that shield, ma'am. They had a girl with them and seemed to be at some kind of fortress but before we could get a good look at it the window had closed and the spell was ended."</p>
<p>Tony scratched at his chin a moment before looking to Hermione. Her eyes were unfocused, as they often were when she was making calculations and problem solving in her head. He'd gotten used to it over the years, and was probably one of only a few that ever did. "You said you used his DNA? Did it zero right in on him?"</p>
<p>"Yes. We had a blood sample from an old experiment he volunteered for years ago."</p>
<p>Tony nodded and turned to Hermione, who he was pretty sure was already on the same page. "You got any samples from either of them?"</p>
<p>"I've got one from Steve but nothing recent from Harry that hasn't become toxic by now. Besides, where one likely is, you'll probably find the other."</p>
<p>The Unspeakable shrugged. "We can use either. Whichever one is easier to get to."</p>
<p>An hour later they were gathered in Tony's lab. Sirius had been fetched from his room, woken up and a cup of coffee shoved at him with the garbled words of "we sort of found Harry!" from an overexcited Hermione.</p>
<p>The ritual cauldron was dropped unceremoniously onto the floor, a handful of dried leaves and wood bark, with some dubious looking flowers and roots were dropped in before the sample from Steve Rogers was taken and added to a potion vial.</p>
<p>The Unspeakable's voice took on a gruff tone as he chanted a few things and then poured the vial's contents into the cauldron and a simple muggle match was added to the mixture.</p>
<p>"What's all that do then?" Tony asked.</p>
<p>Sirius shrugged. "Magic never made a lick of sense," he said as purple smoke rose from the cauldron.</p>
<p>"Mr. Stark have you ever experienced a pensieve?"</p>
<p>"No. But we did design one with a holographic interface for non-magicals to use. MACUSA has one of the prototypes sitting on a shelf somewhere."</p>
<p>"Well, the smoke will form around us much like a pensieve. Don't worry, it's not toxic, won't have lasting effects on your breathing," they said as it started to form around them vague shapes and people. Or rather, what they THOUGHT were people. Well... humans at least. "And it dissipates quite easily once the spell is done. However, be advised, you may get motion sickness if there's a lot of movement around us."</p>
<p>Sirius ducked when what he thought was a giant frisbee came straight for his head.</p>
<p><em> "THIS IS THE LAST TIME I LET YOU PICK A VACATION SPOT!" </em>came Harry's voice, shouting angrily as the scene finished forming around them.</p>
<p>They were surprised to find themselves in the middle of what appeared to be a war-zone. The giant frisbee came back to where it had started, and passed right through Sirius from behind. <em>"Oh Steven!" </em>Captain America replied back in his best impression of Harry's voice and accent – and it wasn't very good. <em>"Let's just THROW A DART AT A MAP ON THE WALL AND GO THERE!"</em></p>
<p><em> "That's not-"</em> And Harry took a spell to the shoulder before shooting one back in the dark.<em> "I do NOT sound like that! You take it back!"</em></p>
<p>
  <em> "Can't! We’re overthrowing the government!"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> "Ooooooo I hate you sometimes!"</em>
</p>
<p>
  <em> "No you don't!"</em>
</p>
<p>There was a loud clang as metal struck metal in the dark beyond where the two men were fighting.</p>
<p>Hermione gasped when she saw wizards and witches coming out of the darkness. She reached for Tony, gripping his hand tightly when she found it as she watched her best friend take a spell right to the back while someone else managed to take down Cap.</p>
<p>When they rolled the supposed disarmed muggle onto his back though, his cut face and busted lip were smiling. The last thing they saw before the smoke dissipated was the most absurd thing they could have ever imagined.</p>
<p>Steve Rogers, pulling a wand, and blasting a witch in the face with it.</p>
<p>"That was...."</p>
<p>"I think I may need to sit down..." Sirius said, forgetting once again that he no longer had magic of his own and failed to conjure a chair. He didn't even care that he landed on his ass on the floor. A haunted look had him as he stared at the place where Harry had been, flat on his stomach, presumably dead.</p>
<p>"He'll be fine," Hermione murmured as she knelt down beside him.</p>
<p>"Is that it?" Tony asked. "That's all we get?"</p>
<p>"Unless you have more samples of their DNA floating around, that's it. And you can only use the spell once per day. Using it a second time has disastrous results."</p>
<p>"Such as?"</p>
<p>"Such as the Unspeakable that tried to do it ended up losing his damn mind."</p>
<p>"So we'll be careful."</p>
<p>"No, you don't understand, Mr. Stark. He LITERALLY lost his mind. The brain turned to mush. His body shut down. The last thing he said right before he died was <em>'it's too much, oh god, it's too much'</em> and then we had brain goo coming out of every orifice of his head. So no, I would not recommend doing the spell a second time within 24 hours."</p>
<p>Tony opened his mouth, but was interrupted before he could even begin. "And no, you can't use a time turner to get around it either so don't even try it. Not that Dr. Granger-Weasley has one because certainly if she did she would do the right thing and return it to the nearest Department of Mysteries, now wouldn't she."</p>
<p>"Of course," the woman lied. And they all knew she lied.</p>
<p>"We will continue, of course, to try and open a gateway to bring them back but... without the Veil we don't think that it's very likely from this end."</p>
<p>"So you're just giving up?"</p>
<p>"I'm afraid even the Unspeakables can't perform miracles. We've simply run out of things to try and places to look for more things to try. Unfortunately, there are more pressing matters we have to attend to. Like the rest of the people like Mr. Black and other assorted classified projects we are working on. I'm sorry, Mr. Stark. Mr. Black. Dr. Granger-Weasley... but this is the best we have been able to do so far."</p>
<p>The Unspeakable left the instructions and ingredients list with Hermione, the only magical capable of actually using magic in the house. They let themselves out and returned to New York.</p>
<p>The small patchwork family remained in Tony's home lab, each dealing with the news in their own way. Sirius stood and declared he needed a drink. Hermione mumbled something about needing to do some research on the spell they were given.</p>
<p>Tony, when he was finally alone, got into one of his suits and left.</p>
<p>There were reports later in the evening and into the night of Iron Man sightings and black market weapons caches being destroyed.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>On the seventh day of the third week, Tony had come staggering in at daybreak smelling of engine oil, smoke, and sweat.</p>
<p>He showered. He trimmed his beard. He chugged a couple of Red Bulls, and he dragged his sorry ass to the office where Pepper proceeded to chew him up one side and down the other for his recklessness.</p>
<p>Not that he blamed her.</p>
<p>When she'd finally stopped, realizing she wasn't getting any of his usual sass and smartassery in response, she asked him what was wrong. She hadn't seen him this down in the dumps in years.</p>
<p>And when Tony opened his mouth, to admit to her that not even the magical people could find Harry and drag his sorry ass back home... something large and heavy crashed through the roof. He had just enough time to yank Pepper out of the way as it carried on down through the floor. Then the floors. And as it went the large metal sphere seemed to disintegrate around whatever was inside until it was just two figures. Crashing through the floors and getting smaller and smaller.</p>
<p>"FRIDAY! Gimme a status report baby girl! Can you make out what- who that is?"</p>
<p>"Piecing together the camera footage now for you Boss," came the lilting voice. Seconds later, as Tony and Pepper were peering over the edge and the figures came to a stop she spoke again. "Boss... It's Them. It's Captain Rogers and Harry Potter."</p>
<p>"FRIDAY, call Hermione right now! Tell her to get her ass here ASAP!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Aftermath</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Harry and Steve were dragged back to the compound and examined under close scrutiny by Hermione. She refused to give either of them a clean bill of health out of spite for all the worry and trouble they'd put everyone through.</p>
<p>Not that she could keep Harry in one place. If Madame Pomfrey couldn't do it, Hermione Granger-Weasley had no bloody hope. But she tried.</p>
<p>The pair of them hid in Steve's room for the rest of the day and were very grateful to be left alone to sleep off the rather violent trip across time and space. Doom wasn't lying when he said it would be unpleasant. In fact, Harry had complained after a shower, the man had undersold them on how unpleasant it was going to be.</p>
<p>In the following days the two of them gave an account of what had happened – minus some of the more personal aspects – to them and their time away. Harry was debriefed, and since he'd dragged the 'no-maj' into it, so was Steve.</p>
<p>Finally, at the end of their first full week back home, with no more meetings and briefings and debriefings and surprise visits and examinations from Hermione... Tony came to see them.</p>
<p>FRIDAY had told them he was on his way.</p>
<p>Harry remembered what he'd said to Steve the night they had left for the former British Ministry. He was going to tell Tony about them. He was going to tell Tony EVERYTHING.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, he didn't get the chance.</p>
<p>Before they could even get up from their seats in the lounge to greet him, Tony had come in and activated some new gadget in his watch. His hand was encased in metal and came slamming into Harry's cheek seconds after the man had stood.</p>
<p>"You KNOW what that's for, old man!"</p>
<p>Sam had moved to intervene, but Steve put out his arm to stop him, shaking his head. "Let them get it out of their systems."</p>
<p>"He just-"</p>
<p>"I know," Steve said quietly. "I don't like it either but those two..."</p>
<p>Harry rubbed at his jaw and glared at Tony. "It's not like I planned on dicking off for nearly a month!"</p>
<p>"Oh no! That's normal! You just up and disappear without a damn word at the drop of a hat! Been doing it most of my damn life why stop now!"</p>
<p>"Then what the hell'd you punch me for you maniac!"</p>
<p>The metal gloved hand pointed to the side, straight at Steve. "Did you tell him?"</p>
<p>"Yes. But only after we'd been gone for two bloody years, Tony," Harry said, still rubbing at his cheek. "That thing packs a wallop. What's it made of?"</p>
<p>"Synthetic vibranium."</p>
<p>Harry gave a small, impressed look before he got another hit to the other cheek. And once again Steve stomped down that instinct to jump in and insisted no one else do it either.</p>
<p>"What the hell Tony!"</p>
<p>"The first one was for lying all this damn time! The second was for breaking your promise!"</p>
<p>"It's not like I WANTED to break it! Things happened and we couldn't come home until we fixed what we- what<em><strong> I</strong></em> broke! And that meant making sure certain things happened to certain people there! Did you even READ the damn reports we had to write up? I know I sent you a copy before they were classified that way I could tell you about it!"</p>
<p>"I.... might have skimmed it."</p>
<p>As the situation de-escalated from there, the B-Team scattered safe in the knowledge that if something happened, at least Steve would be there to pick up the pieces either of them left of each other. Natasha though stopped long enough to murmur at him "We are sparring later and you WILL tell me what goes down here."</p>
<p>"Yes ma'am," he replied, patting her shoulder just before she left them to it.</p>
<p>In the end, Harry had to agree to a full family dinner. The WHOLE family. Weasleys and all. When Tony finally left, it was with the shout back of, "You break his heart, I won't need the suit to break your legs, Rogers!"</p>
<p>"That a threat, Stark?"</p>
<p>"It's a guarantee! By the way, Harry! Sirius can't wait to see you again!"</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0008"><h2>8. BONUS: And The World Goes On</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Just because our heroes left the world they changed doesn't mean things stop for those they left behind. The journey and the ones who take it might change, but some things... well, some things are Inevitable.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A dark haired boy stood on his tip toes at the table, watching an older man with greying hair work quietly in the evening.</p>
<p>"Grandpa?"</p>
<p>The man turned, tired but smiling as he pushed his glasses up his nose. "Yeah squirt?"</p>
<p>"Look what I drew at school today," he said, holding up his piece of crayon covered paper with a big, gap toothed grin. There was a man fighting bad guys with a big round thing stuck on the end of his hand. "We was supposed to draw what we wanna do when we grow up. I wanna be a hero! Just like your books!"</p>
<p>He nodded, taking the paper from the kid and holding it more in the light from his table. "Do you think mommy and daddy will like it?" the kid asked him.</p>
<p>"I know they will, but.... I think I want to keep this one."</p>
<p>"Okay. But you have to show 'em when they get back from their trip okay."</p>
<p>The man nodded, getting up from his chair. "I need a break anyway. Why don't we go put this on the fridge where grandpa Buck can see it, too."</p>
<p>"I already showed him..."</p>
<p>"Well I'm sure he wouldn't mind seeing it again. Could you turn off my lamp and then we'll go put your hero on the fridge. Maybe get a snack while we're there."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>A boy around 13 stood in the doorway of a bedroom in an old New Jersey home.</p>
<p>"Hey gramps... can I ask you something?" he asked of the man packing an overnight bag.</p>
<p>"Now's not really the time-"</p>
<p>"I know but... Mom and dad wouldn't... they really wouldn't understand and I need some, I dunno, advice?" the boy said, running a hand through his hair.</p>
<p>"You'll have to ask while I pack. Maybe there might be time in the car on the way over to the hospital..."</p>
<p>"There's this boy..."</p>
<p>"I'm really not the person to go to for-"</p>
<p>"It's not like that! He's a no-maj and I really like him but I... I don't like lying to him. You always say it's best to tell the truth, and dad's always saying he can't stand liars and I know I can't tell him about magic but... But... What am i supposed to say when he asks me what my school is like?! And when he starts talking about science and robots and-"</p>
<p>The old man stopped and put down the shirt he was holding. He moved the duffel bag aside and sat down, patting the bedspread. "And you want to know what you can tell him without going to prison for it."</p>
<p>"Yeah... How'd... How'd grandpa Buck tell you about it?"</p>
<p>"Well, we found out when your great aunt Becca found out on Sarah's eleventh birthday of course." The older man stroked his chin in thought. "Where'd you meet him?"</p>
<p>"Well mom took me to some opera show that her girlfriend was doing..."</p>
<p>"I'll never understand how the hell your parents make that work..."</p>
<p>"Well it was so boring I kind of snuck out to the lobby and there was this boy. His parents dragged him there, too. And we kind of hit it off and found out we live near each other so we've been meeting up and-"</p>
<p>"So it's just a summer crush. You'll go back to school and-"</p>
<p>"Gramps!"</p>
<p>"Give it time. If he's still around next summer, come back and ask me again. Now help me pack up a bag for your grandpa. You know how grumpy he gets when he's not got his own underwear at the hospital."</p>
<p>The boy wrinkled his nose, but nodded and stood to help.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Cedric kicked the trash can, then grabbed his wand and after a quick look around set it back to rights. Mostly.</p>
<p>"Neat trick," came a familiar voice before another teen dropped out of the tree. "I knew there was something weird about you."</p>
<p>"Shit! Shit shit shit! You.... you saw that?"</p>
<p>"Yep."</p>
<p>"Shit. My parents are going to kill me!"</p>
<p>"Tell you what... do it again and I won't tell anyone."</p>
<p>"What's in it for me?" the 15 year old challenged.</p>
<p>The blue eyed, dark haired boy he'd seen every summer since he was 13 just grinned. "I'll show you the coolest robot you've ever seen."</p>
<p>"Bullshit."</p>
<p>"You kiss your mom with that mouth?"</p>
<p>"That's just gross, Tony! Kissing your mother!"</p>
<p>The two boys grinned at each other and Cedric looked around again to make sure no one was watching, and flicked his wand to pick up the trash he missed the first time. Tony's eyes lit up as a whole new world had just been opened up to him. Cedric turned to his best friend and gave him a slight shove in the shoulder. "Come on, take me to this robot of yours."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"So... I graduate this year."</p>
<p>"Really?"</p>
<p>Cedric nodded. "I've told you about the whole magic people thing right? How we're adults when we hit 17?"</p>
<p>"Yeah. You still won't be able to do anything important until you're 18 though."</p>
<p>"I.... I'm going to join the police. Well, magic police anyway."</p>
<p>"Buzzkill."</p>
<p>"I'll be gone for a few years doing training at the academy so..."</p>
<p>"So you won't be around for a while," Tony said, offering the cigarette to his friend who took it gladly.</p>
<p>"Yeah..." he said. The pair of them sat on the rooftop watching the sun set.</p>
<p>"When do you leave for school again?"</p>
<p>"Saturday. Taking a train down to... well... Can't say really. Wish I could though. Damn secrecy bullshit."</p>
<p>Tony nodded, leaning back some to stare up at the clouds and to watch the smoke rise above them. "One day our no-maj tech will be so advanced we'll be able to see where all these weird magical places are at."</p>
<p>"You going to out us all to the rest of the world?" Cedric asked, watching him from the corner of his eye. He didn't think Tony would do that, but then again the other did get caught up in the excitement of showing off what his inventions could do he didn't really think through consequences very often.</p>
<p>Cedric still had the scar in the centre of his chest from the failed attempt at a magic powered x-ray machine to prove it.</p>
<p>Tony shook his head. "No way. I'll just have to be the one to make the tech in the first place. Make sure nobody can find you guys without me knowing about it. I can have that program I'm working on keep an eye on things for me. He'll be able to be everywhere all the time! Scanning everything everywhere and fixing it so nobody ever finds out."</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Training was hard. A lot harder than he'd expected it to be.</p>
<p>But he was made of stronger stuff. Deep down, he knew this was the right choice. He was a fighter – always had been. He just... tended to fight more with his head than his body. And now that fact was coming back to bite him in the ass.</p>
<p>But Cedric wouldn't give up. No matter how hard his instructors piled on the pain after learning who his father really was, he pushed back out of spite of his father's single claim to fame.</p>
<p>One thing was certain, Cedric knew, deep down in his bones as he clutched the replacement wand his parents had given him when he'd turned 17, there was no going back now. He touched the wand tip of the heirloom Elder wand to the back of his chosen weapon, a round shield, to strengthen the protection charms on it before he charged forward. He'd get through this training, or he'd die trying.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Three years at the academy. One year on the force, and now...</p>
<p>"You want me to WHAT?!"</p>
<p>"We don't WANT you to do anything. Higher up is demanding your transfer. Our hands are tied."</p>
<p>"What if I don't want it?"</p>
<p>"Auror Rogers, honestly, we need someone like you," the man in the hooded robes said. "We're reviving a special forces unit at WARD. Simply put your skills are wasted here."</p>
<p>They gave him a few weeks to think it over.</p>
<p>The truth was he knew what his answer was before he left that meeting.</p>
<p>Being a regular auror... it was boring. It didn't have the danger, the excitement he craved. It didn't have the same rush as those stories his mother told him as a child. The stories about the strangers that had inspired his grandfather's best and most popular comic books.</p>
<p>When he came back at the end of the week, dropping his auror badge on the desk, he turned to the Unspeakable with a wide grin. "Where do I sign up?"</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Agent Paladin was... difficult to work with with for... well... anyone. He tended to do his best work alone.</p>
<p>Alone and reckless.</p>
<p>Then again, he was a Potter by blood and a Lovegood, too.</p>
<p>It hadn't helped that he was sorted into Thunderbird House at school... the house of Adventurers.</p>
<p>His mother couldn't be prouder but his father... Well... he was a worrier. Doted on him, of course. But still...</p>
<p>"You'll get yourself killed one of these days, Ced. That's not life for anyone..."</p>
<p>The day he found out his father was right was also the day he found out his mother was hiding something from everyone.</p>
<p>Cedric Rogers-Barnes, Agent Paladin, knew he should be dead. He'd been impaled in the chest – dead centre right where the scar Tony's experimental x-ray machine had got him good all those years ago. It was a thick piece of rebar that caught him when he was thrown off the tactical broom he'd been straddling, trying to cut the shipping container of kidnapped Veela children free of the crane.</p>
<p>So why the hell was he in the morgue at WARD HQ, their midnight shift coroner staring at him in horror and disbelief just after removing the last piece of rebar from his naked chest? And who the fuck was screaming bloody murder when he came to?</p>
<p>Oh.... wait.</p>
<p>Those were his screams.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>He glared at his mother.</p>
<p>"Why?"</p>
<p>"Because this is the way it has to be."</p>
<p>"Says you! No future is set in stone! You can't play with people's lives like this mother!"</p>
<p>"I wish... I wish you could See what I See when I look at you... The burden of knowledge no one human is meant to know..."</p>
<p>When Cedric left his parents' home his mother was in tears. Her girlfriend comforting her.</p>
<p>He went to the only place the ever felt... normal. Even in his wacky life.</p>
<p>Knocking on the door after the familiar tug of apparition, he waited on the old front porch of the New Jersey home.</p>
<p>It opened, and a one armed old man smiled up at him. "Hey kid."</p>
<p>"Hey grandpa Buck... is gramps in?"</p>
<p>"He's napping, but you can wait around if you want. I can always use another hand in the kitchen. This newfangled plastic piece of shit isn't as good at opening jars as the old wood one."</p>
<p>"I'd like that..." he said as the old man moved aside to let him in.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"She seems nice. You should ask for her number."</p>
<p>"Don't need it. Too clingy," Tony said before he realized who'd spoken.</p>
<p>He turned, and grinned wide when he saw who it was. "Cedric it's been-"</p>
<p>"Years, I know. Haven't seen you since I went off to the academy."</p>
<p>"When was that.... Ten years?"</p>
<p>"Six and you damn well know it."</p>
<p>The two friends had a couple of drinks together, promising to catch up properly in the coming days. They didn't, of course. Cedric was there working a case undercover. Tony was... well... he was Tony Stark. Too busy, too drunk, and having too much fun to spend time with old friends.</p>
<p>Not that the wizard minded. He didn't have much room for a social life anymore anyway. Not since coming to terms with what the curse he was left with meant for him and anyone he bothered to get close to.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was nagged and nagged until finally his niece, her kids, and even his own grandkid, dragged him and his might-as-well-be-husband of the last 50 years off to MACUSA's main offices in June 1995 to, as Sarah had put it, "Make an honest man of uncle Steve. Honestly, being a squib you could have done this at any time uncle Bucky, no matter what those stupid no-maj laws say."</p>
<p>All grumpy old Steve had to say on the matter was, "Took his lazy ass long enough. You'd think adopting a kid together would have underlined the point for him but noooo it's like he took all the stupid with him when he went off to war and decided to keep it."</p>
<p>Didn't change the fact that the certificate making it official, at least in one version of their world, was hung with pride in their bedroom where they could see it every single day.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>Cedric had grown accustomed to the skeletal bird that followed him around since his first death.</p>
<p>But that's not to say he liked it when the bloody thing poked it's beak into his business. It was one chatty motherfucker when it wanted to be.</p>
<p>"So tell me again," Agent Paladin said with a sigh as he pinched the bridge of his nose trying to stave off a headache. "How did the no-maj get their hands on an all powerful magical wish granting cube?"</p>
<p>"You know the Strangers were supposed to collect it but they went on the mission and never came back."</p>
<p>Cedric really wanted there to be a table nearby to smash his face into if only to distract him from how incredibly stupid the people around him were. Or distract him from the avatar of Death that liked to chatter at him. Fucking constantly. Alas, there was no table. And these people were once again proving to be absolutely useless. "Just give me whatever research you have and I'll sort out the rest. Jesus fucking Christ you're all worse than my cousins."</p>
<p>And so it was that after getting what information he needed to track the ancient wish granting cube, Agent Paladin set off to find and retrieve it, doing his best to ignore the flying bag of bones that followed him. He started his search in Latveria – the last place WARD knew the cube to be. The mission the mysterious Strangers had gone on but never returned from. He found out from the small country's ruler, an old sorcerer-scientist named Victor Von Doom, that he'd used the cube to meld magic and science to build a machine. A machine that unfortunately exploded after the first and only time it was used. "I sent the old Captain and his Wizard back where they came from," he said. "The cube was stolen two years later and I haven't seen it since."</p>
<p>Other than that, Doom wasn't much help but he did offer to show some of his notes to Cedric so he could have a better idea of what he was looking for.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>He was not expecting to meet him again.</p>
<p>Especially not in a kerfuffle in Germany of all places.</p>
<p>"Nice suit," Cedric said, his face still hidden by his hood once he'd been brought, with a Norse god of all people, back to a no-maj airship.</p>
<p>"Nice shield. What's it made of?"</p>
<p>"What's the suit made of?"</p>
<p>"No can do. Proprietary materials."</p>
<p>Cedric grinned. "Unspeakable oaths. Can't tell you."</p>
<p>"Damn... I'll figure it out."</p>
<p>"I don't doubt it." he replied and would have said more had some guy in a long black coat not strolled in. Cedric couldn't help but laugh. "Are you a pirate? Is this an actual pirate ship? I don't think I've ever been on one of those yet. Unless you count that mess in Somalia a few years back."</p>
<p>"Agent Paladin, you're a hard man to track down."</p>
<p>"Well, for a no-maj. My people find me just fine thank you."</p>
<p>"No they don't. Now at least I can call off the search I sent my recruiters on."</p>
<p>"I'm not a team player. I'm just here to talk to the prisoner and then I'm off to find my missing cube and finish a 40 year old mission."</p>
<p>And that was how Cedric got roped into the mess that would become known as the Battle of New York.</p>
<p>
  <strong>o0o</strong>
</p>
<p>"So you guys really ride broomsticks-"</p>
<p>"For the hundredth time Clint, yes. We really ride broomsticks. My dad's partner used to play professional quidditch, actually. The Bulgarian national team I think. He owns a broom company now though."</p>
<p>"Quidditch?"</p>
<p>Tony laughed. "That's the one with the balls that attack you right?"</p>
<p>"Bludgers, yeah. That one. My dad was pretty good, too. But he never went pro and there really isn't much interest here in the states for it. We prefer Quodpot."</p>
<p>"God you wizards are so damn weird," Tony said before taking a bite of his shwarma.</p>
<p>"Says the man who decided the best use of his life support was to power a machine instead of himself."</p>
<p>"Hey!" Tony exclaimed, mouth full. "I AM the machine!"</p>
<p>"I bet JARVIS runs more of that suit than you do!"</p>
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